Scroll through social media and you will encounter a strange vocabulary for an old impulse: “tanmaxxing,” “UV chasing” and “SPF shunning.” In some corners of the internet, sunscreen is described as toxic, while a “natural” tan is portrayed as protective.
As a dermatologist and skin-cancer researcher, and a medical student, we find the misinformation troubling. But after years studying Canadian sun behaviour, our team has concluded that correcting myths alone will not solve the problem.