Liquor and sunbathing are a bad beach combo. As with many activities matched with alcohol, the danger comes in how it changes our behavior.
And like getting behind the wheel when intoxicated, the result can be deadly.
You don’t toy with the most-powerful star in our sky: the sun.
A study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University found that more than 1 in 5 people who get a sunburn were drinking alcohol when they got scorched. That’s according to data from 6,000 people.
It’s not that the alcohol itself makes someone more susceptible to a bad sunburn. Instead, drinkers tend to forget to apply sunscreen or put on too little. They fall asleep in the sun or get confused and spend too much time in the sun without realizing it.
The study also found that affluent folks, or those earning more than $200,000 a year, get sunburned more often than poorer folks. That makes sense when you remember that people with money can afford expensive activities that expose them to more sun, like boating, skiing or spending a week or two on a beach vacation.
“Social determinants such as race/ethnicity, sex, income and employment status are closely linked to sunburn and skin cancer risk,” said Lea Sacca, the study's senior author and an assistant professor in FAU's Department of Population Health and Social Medicine, within the Schmidt College of Medicine.
Men are also more likely to get sunburned than women, and younger folks ages 18 to 39 more likely than older adults.
It adds up to booming times for skin cancer. It’s the nation’s most common cancer, and perhaps the type that is feared the least. Skin cancer costs U.S. health care $9 billion annually, by one estimate. And it claims thousands of lives.
Even so, only 10% of people surveyed say the prospect of skin cancer is extremely worrisome to them. Nearly 1 in 3 call it just slightly concerning.
It’s best to be attuned to the sobering reality that repeated sunburns can be lethal.
Copyright 2025 WUFT 89.1