Inquiring Minds: Martin Weinstock on summer skin safety

Summer’s official arrival prompted George Street Journal writer Kate Bramson to seek seasonal skin care advice from Brown dermatology professor Martin Weinstock, chairman of the American Cancer Society’s skin cancer advisory group and chief of dermatology at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence.

For people who are at high risk of skin cancer, early detection is critical. The most important warning sign for skin cancer is change in a spot on the skin – that is change in size, shape or color – or new spots or sores that don’t heal.

As we head into summer, what are the most important sun-safety tips?

We have a slogan at the American Cancer Society. It’s “Slip! Slop! Slap!” Slip on a shirt. Slop on the sunscreen. (I recommend sunscreen with SPF 30 or greater.) And slap on a hat. Those are prudent measures to protect yourself from the most intense rays of the sun in the summer.

Do adults and children need to wear different types of sunscreen?

Adults and kids don’t need to wear different kinds of sunscreen, though some of the marketing folks would love to have you believe that so they can sell different products. I recommend that people put on sunscreen before they go out, a half hour after being outside, and periodically thereafter, particularly if they’re swimming or sweating, when some of the sunscreen may drip off. It’s just like painting a house. You paint a first coat. It doesn’t look that great. You put on a second coat, and it starts to look good. It’s the same thing with sunscreen. Reapplying makes sense.

Research shows that the number of people with melanoma is rising faster than the number of people with other types of cancer. Can you tell us why?

That’s actually a complicated question, and there are multiple possible explanations. But the most important reason for the rise in melanoma over the past 65 years – during which time it has risen about 15- to 20-fold – is that people are getting more sun exposure and more intense sun exposure than they did in years past. Although sun exposure is not the only cause of melanoma, it is the major reason for this huge rise, in my judgment.

When is it appropriate for people to see a dermatologist for a skin check-up?

If they have a spot on their skin that they’re concerned might be skin cancer. For the general population, I recommend that people perform a monthly skin self-examination in a thorough and careful manner, which means looking at all the different areas of the skin for any spots that may be changing in sizes, shape or color, or new spots.

That includes top and bottom, front and back, left and right. Wherever you have skin, you should look at it carefully once a month. To be thorough, a lot of people find it helpful to have someone else look at areas that are hard to see.

How can parents persuade their sun-worshiping teens to protect themselves from the sun?

I can’t say to parents how they’re supposed to talk to their teens, but I can say from a societal perspective it’s important to get across the message in ways that will be listened to about the dangers of unprotected, intense sun exposure. One message that I think is important to get out to teens and everyone else is that the healthiest color of your skin is the color you were born with. That’s your color. So if you were born with tan skin or brown skin, great, but if you were born with white skin and you start getting this idea that you’re going to expose it to all this radiation so it can become tan or brown, it’s no great surprise that you may be doing some damage there.