Can sunburn cause skin cancer?
There is currently an epidemic of skin cancer associated with overexposure to sunlight. Skin cancers usually develop at sites that were severely sunburned many years earlier, even in childhood. Repeated burning of these sites increases the chance that a cancer will develop. The nose, ears, and shoulders are prime places for sunburn and skin cancer, and extra caution should be taken to protect them with sunscreen, hats, shirts, and shade. Exposure to sunlight also causes premature aging of the skin. A contributing factor to the increase in skin cancer may be the thinning of the ozone layer, and this problem may become even more severe in the future.
