Justin Pumfrey via Getty Images Don't let your next beach vacation threaten your life. Grab some sunscreen! Even though I grew up in sunny Florida, I was still fairly prone to sunburns ― especially on annual family vacations, when I’d spend hours with my cousins playing in the ocean and emerge with bright red burns that sometimes blistered and always hurt. Even though this only happened about once a year, my mom would tell me that one bad sunburn meant I was X-percentage more likely to get skin cancer in the future.
In my memory, this percentage swings from 20% to 50% or even 80%. Even though my mom wasn’t a dermatologist, I should have listened to her pleas for me to wear sunscreen and be mindful of my future skin and health. As I got older, I often thought about the statistics she shared, wondering if she was correct or being a little melodramatic.
Everyone gets sunburned every now and then, right? How bad could it really be? Advertisement According to dermatologists, it’s far from OK. And my mom’s statistics actually weren’t far off. “It is believed that one blistering childhood sunburn doubles your risk of developing melanoma later in life,” said Boca Raton-based dermatologist Jeffrey Fromowitz, citing a statistic that’s backed up by research and the Skin Cancer Foundation .
Fromowitz also shared that five or more “typical” sunburns (not blistering) also double the your risk of developing melanoma , the most dangerous and deadly type of skin cancer. .
