Today the leisure crowd increasing uses the sun to attain the healthy glow that comes from being outside. It is ironic that we now seek to darken our skins to attain beauty, while only a few generations ago that same darkened tone was shunned by the aristocratic among us. At that time, the darkening of the skin from the sunlight was tantamount to announcing that one makes a living working outside, performing manual labor. This farmers tan was taken as a sign of lower economic status.

We have seen a dramatic change in the way a person with a tan is perceived. A healthy tan is now the hallmark of an individual with a healthy lifestyle and the time to enjoy it. Tans are no longer associated exclusively with working outside. Instead the first reaction to someone with a good tan is that they must be a sportsman of some type. The business world has been quick to capitalize on the desire of the public to be outside and enjoy fun in the sun.

Certain areas of the country benefit disproportionately to this sometimes fanatical drive to be outdoors. Those areas that experience sunshine most of the year, and especially those that have bodies of water as well are swamped with visitors eager to play in the sand and surf under sunny skies. A phenomenon of amazing proportion has sprung up around the spring breaks college students take advantage of. It seems nearly a requirement to take off from college in the spring and amass in places like Florida and California for some wild and crazy fun and release during the spring. This event has its down sides of course, but that has not slowed the event at all.

It is fact that exposure to the sun is beneficial for the creation of Vitamin D in moderation, with the skin capable of producing approximately 10,000 units of vitamin D with 20 to 30 minutes of sun exposure. The key concept here is moderation. Unfortunately for those who enjoy being outdoors, it is a rare event that lasts only 30 minutes. When we go out to enjoy the sun, it is likely to be for an afternoon, if not the whole day.

The shift from considering a tan and exposure to the sun something to be eschewed to the notion of the tan as a sign of a healthy active outdoors person has brought some health issues with it. We know that exposure to the sun has a negative effect on the skin. Even a few minutes of unprotected exposure to the sun on a daily basis can cause a phenomenon known as photo aging. This results in the appearance of freckles and age spots and causes the skin to appear rough and leathery, the opposite effect the youngster was shooting for while lying in the sun for a tan.

But the king of all the problems with unprotected exposure to the sun is skin cancer. While the majority of skin cancers are treatable forms of basal cell carcinoma, the treatment is at best unpleasant. This has spawned yet another industry in the form of UV resistant skin care products. For those for whom the call of the sun is unavoidable, these skin care products with sun prevention factors of varying strengths have provided a means to stay safely in the sun.

We have a vast array of creams, oils, and ointments we can apply to protect us from UV rays, but they all seem to have the same drawback. There is just something inherently icky about applying oil to the skin before going to the beach. In addition to the discomfort of feeling oiled up, blowing sand now sticks everywhere it touches. When we decide to cool off in the water, we wash off our protection, at best this means we have to re-oil ourselves, at worst we are once again in the sun without protection. It would be wonderful if public beaches all installed shade sails so the public could enjoy the sun in greater safety.

To discover more about sail shades along with the tremendous benefits they provide in UV protection, make sure you go to some other valuable on-line sources. With the French market just about the most useful and informative websites is named Voile d’Ombrage, which is among the words and phrases the French employ to describe sail shades.