SUN-BATHERS DON'T USE OIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20762, 3 January 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

SUN-BATHERS DON'T USE OIL.

By A HARLEY STREET SPECIALIST. At those resorts on the Mediterranean shores where people go for sun-bathing in the summer it has become customary for the bathers to smear their skins with liquid paraflin vaseline and other oily substances, so as to prolong the period of exposure without inflaming the skin. The oil acts by absorbing the ultra violet rays of shortest wave length. By adopting this precaution bathers may expose themselves for the whole morning on the beaches when they first arrive instead of having to prepare their skins by a graduated series of exposures. This use of oil is unhealthy, and as it is becoming common at seaside places a word of warning is here offered. During the sun-bath tho temperature of the body tends to rise above normal owing to the heat absorbed, but under natural conditions this is prevented by evaporation of moisture from the skin. If tho skin is oiled this cooling process is stopped and tho temperature rises—hence the danger. The oiling of localised patches of inflammation is, however, not attended by any harm.