Megan Eicholtz, 18, sunbathes twice a week during the summer, but said she does not worry about getting skin cancer. She does use sunscreen when she lies in the sun so she won't get burned.

"I don't really think about skin cancer. I guess I know it's possible, but I'm kind of young and naive," Eicholtz said while sunbathing at the Murray City Park pool.

Melanie Roebuck has a similar attitude about the sun and only uses sunscreen on her face to prevent burns, not because she is worried about skin cancer. Roebuck, who is in her 30s, already had a skin cancer scare several years ago when she developed a white bump on her lip where she had been badly burned nearly 20 years ago.

The scare won't keep her out of the sun, Roebuck said, because she feels and looks better when she is tan. The one thing she does worry about is another side effect of too much sun — wrinkles.

Leachman said many people knowingly damage their skin with sun exposure because they buy into the myth that tan skin is more beautiful than fair skin. That myth is perpetuated by images of perfectly bronzed bodies on advertisements and in movies, Leachman said.

"It's really sad, because the beautiful young ladies who are so motivated by their image are the same ones who are going to have disfigurements later in life because they screwed up when they were young," she said.

Avoiding too much sun does not have to mean shunning the sun but can be as simple as being "sun smart." Leachman recommends wearing sunscreen with at least a 30 SPF every day, avoiding sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., wearing hats and donning protective clothing with a tight weave.

Myers has embraced those guidelines and now puts on sunscreen before anything else in the morning. She also has her skin routinely checked for new growths and has put her sunbathing days behind her.

Leachman added that sunbathing and tanning beds are absolute no-no's in preventing skin cancer. Alternatives such as spray-on tanning salons and self-tanners are good options and are safe for skin, she said.

Ultra Tanz in Sandy offers a mist tan that dyes the skin and wears off in about a week. Although the salon has twice the number of customers using tanning beds rather than the mist machine, employee Melissa Jenkins said the mist is catching on because it is "quick, easy and painless."

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com