Originally Posted by xepherys

Yes, sunscreen can prevent you from outright burning, however it does this by having you slather chemicals over nearly your entire body. Many doctors, university researchers and study groups are finding that the increase in skin cancer over the past 50-60 years is most likely linked to the USE of sunscreen. Human beings have spent most of their time out in the sun for several millenia, and our bodies are well adept at handling it. For most people, even many fair-skinned ones, burning once or twice at the beginning of the summer will keep you from really burning again as you stay out in the sun. While the ultraviolet rays CAN be damaging to skin cells, that damage is countered to a degree by thousands of years of genetic development. However, we have not developed an internal way to counter chemicals all over our body.