Life's a Beach and I'm just....BURNING!

Jan 03, 2008 - 01:27 AM PST

Summer time and the living is easy. Too easy; enough to not care about risking our health.
I walk out onto the hot sand, tiptoeing, like I’m walking across hot coals. Find the perfect spot looking out towards the rhythm of the ocean. Children splashing each other, digging for seashells and making moats around their sandcastles. Sounds of seagulls flying above waiting for the lady with a bag of Doritos to stumble and drop them so they can make their next attack. Ah yes! A perfect 90 degree day at the Jersey Shore. I lay down my towel and spray on my Banana Boat tanning oil, no worries, just a day relaxing in the sun.
Many of our summer vacations are similar, hours spent out on the beach without a worry in mind. We don’t go to the beach thinking about the toxins and waste that fill the Atlantic Ocean, or how the car that we drove in to get to beach is partially the reason why we burned that day. But “hey, it will turn into a tan.” I remember telling my mom this every year that we went to the beach when she taunted me to rub SPF 40 sun block all over myself but I insisted that it would hinder me from bronzing. We also don’t think the Doritos that we munch upon while the seagulls stare us down waiting for us to drop one, as being a factor to the reason why our moms are forcing us to wear SPF 40. The industries that produce processed foods are responsible for approximately 90 percent of the sulfur dioxide emission in the air.
No, what we think about after such a relaxing day of being affected by UV radiation, is getting in our cars, pumping up the volume and the AC. Air conditioning releases freon; this substances reaches and depletes our stratospheric ozone layer, which is what was suppose to protect us from getting burned at the beach.
But so what, the ozone layer is depleting, how does that affect me? According to The American Cancer Society over 1 million people are diagnosed with non-melanoma cancer a YEAR. Most all cases due to over exposure to the sun. Ultra-violet radiation is also responsible for weakening our immune systems because it destroys our skins natural defense. Does this mean that some people actually pay to destroy their immune system? Guilty as charged; I never once thought about this while I was laying in a box at the tanning salon exposing my body to high watts of UV radiation. However, it is usually misconstrued that the sun has to be out, and that we have to spend hours on the beach in order to develop skin cancer. Wrong! As long as we keep pumping air-conditioning, mass-producing in industries, using hair spray and driving, we’ll always be exposed to an unsafe amount of UV radiation.
At this rate, years from now we’re going to have to step outside wearing SPF 1,000,000…I don’t think that’s possible. Laying out on the beach will become a historical event because the ocean will be to full of oil spills and waste from those Dorito making companies. We’ll probably only be able to eat processed foods because at this rate the ozone layer will have depleted so much that the UVB rays will be too strong for any crops to grow. I’m not saying to stop using your air conditioning or give up driving, but be aware of the environmental issues we face that cause serious cases of cancer and damage to our bodies.