Why you should wear sunscreen all year around

Why you should wear sunscreen all year around

Every year around this time, the warnings start coming: wear sunscreen.

But in actual fact, there's a school of thought that we should be wearing sunscreen all the time - not just in the summer months.

Whether at home, in the car, or at work, sunlight is always shooting dangerous UVA and UVB rays at us through our wafer-thin ozone layer.

UVA rays penetrate deep into the skin's thickest layer and contribute to aging, while UVB rays fry the superficial layers of your skin and are what cause sunburn, and play a key role in the development of skin cancer.

That's especially concerning here. New Zealand and Australia have the highest rates of melanoma in the world, and it's the fastest-growing cancer worldwide.

New research from the University of Oslo found that using high-factor suncreen - SPF 15 or higher - can decrease the risk of melanoma by a whopping 33 percent.

But counter-intuitively, the study found users of low-factor sunscreen reported more sunburn than those who didn't use any at all.

That's because those using sunscreen feel they're adequately protected, often prolonging their exposure to the sun.