• Question: why can the sun burn you

    Asked by to Joe, Juan, Kate, Rosie on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rosie Coates

      Rosie Coates answered on 19 Mar 2014:


      The sun emits something called ultra violet, or UV. When UV light hits the living cells of the skin it causes damage to the DNA molecules which bends them out of shape. This means that the skin cells become damaged.

      The symptoms of sunburn that you feel are a mixture of warning signs and your bodies efforts to repair the damage caused by the UV radiation. Your skin becomes hot because blood vessels near your skin dilate, or become wider, to allow more blood to reach the area so white blood cells can get rid of the damaged skin cells.

      The damaged cells also cause pain receptors to be activated to tell your brain that your skin is in danger. This will hopefully cause behavioral changes like covering your skin, getting out of the sun and being more careful in future.

      Sunburn is not just painful and inconvenient in the short term. The same DNA damage that causes the red, painful sunburns is the cause of skin cancer. When the DNA accumulates more and more damage over the years the cells can stop working properly and skin cancer can develop.

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