For my chemical equilibrium project I chose to do it on Sunburns. I made my poster describing first, what a sunburn is. A sunburn is a radiation burn to the skin produced by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, commonly from the sun's rays.
Normal (skin) - equilibrium Not normal (red skin) - non equilibrium Not enough sun vs. too much sun Freckles
Skin damage is caused by both UVA and UVB rays. Ultraviolet light can alter your DNA, prematurely aging your skin. Over time, DNA damage can contribute to skin cancers, including deadly melanoma. When you get a sunburn, your skin turns red and hurts. If the burn is severe, you can develop swelling and sunburn blisters. You may even feel like you have the flu -- feverish, with chills, nausea, headache, and weakness.A few days later, your skin will start peeling and itching as your body tries to rid itself of sun-damaged cells. Sunburn treatment is designed to attack the burn on two fronts -- relieving reddened, inflamed skin while easing pain.
Compresses. Apply cold compresses to your skin or take a cool bath to soothe the burn. Creams or gels. To take the sting out of your sunburn, gently rub on a cream or gel containing ingredients such as:
Menthol
Camphor
Aloe
Ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB) are the two types of solar radiation most responsible for sunburn. Sunlamps and tanning beds also produce UV light and can cause sunburn. Melanin is the dark pigment in the outer layer of skin (epidermis) that gives your skin its normal color. When you're exposed to UV light, your body protects itself by accelerating the production of melanin. The extra melanin creates the darker color of a tan. You can get sunburn on cool, hazy or cloudy days. As much as 80 percent of UV rays pass through clouds. Snow, ice, sand, water and other surfaces can reflect UV rays, burning your skin as severely as direct sunlight.
Bibliography:
Chemical Equilibrium: Sunburns Driving Question: Why does chemical equilibrium need to be maintained and how do you do it? Answer: Chemical equilibrium (normal skin color) needs to maintained on your skin because UVB and UVA rays destruct melanin and your DNA causing premature aging and skin cancers like melanoma. To help prevent this is by using sunscreens and not spending too much time outside from 10 Am to 2 Pm on hot sunny days. What is chemical equilibrium? -A state of dynamic balance in which the rate of formation of the products of a reaction from the reactants equal the rate of formation of the reactants from the products, at equilibrium the concentrations of the reactants and products remain constant. An article by the American Academy of Dermatology talks about the main causes of a sunburns or tans on your skin. They mostly talk about melanin, and how it is the reason for your skin color. People who have light skin don’t have as much melanin compared to darker skinned people. Melanin protects your deeper skin from the sun and the UV rays. If the sun starts to burn you, more melanin forms making your skin tanner or redder. It also can cause freckles to form or blisters. In an article called, “Science of Summer: What Causes Sunburns?”, by Adam Hadhazy, talks more about the causes of sunburns. He says, “The defense mechanism (of a sunburn) is a pigment called melanin, which is produced by cells in our skin called melanocytes. Melanin absorbs ultraviolet light and dissipates it as heat.” When a UV photon strikes the skin, it can damage the DNA in the body's cells by breaking bonds between the four nucleotides, adenosine, thymine and guanine. Thymine dimers form and disturb the making of the DNA molecules. Soon the body reacts and pushes blood to circulate and help the healing process. Bad burns can cause sun damage permanently, skin cancer called melanoma and wrinkles can also appear at a young age. An article by Dermalogica says, “a sunburn is the skin’s response to extreme ultraviolet (UV) exposure and indicates severe damage”. The first sign of damage is your skin turning red. The body’s inflammatory response is a result of dilating blood vessels. Then when your skin feels tight, it’s caused by your skin starting to lose moisture and hydration. Skin cells will then start to thicken and melanin (pigment) will be produced to try and stop the UV rays from getting into the deeper layers and damaging the DNA of the cells.If your skin is exposed to too much sun it may result in hypo or hyperpigmentation, which appears as irregular light or dark patches. Our bodies are good at healing, but if we have permanent damage it could cause skin cancer. A study found from the University of Maryland Medical Center about aloe vera shows why we’ve been using it for burns over the many years. Aloe gel for burns is found in the center of the aloe vera plant. It’s found in many of today’s lotions and cosmetics too.Aloe contains active compounds that may reduce pain and inflammation and stimulate skin growth and repair, and is a good moisturizer.In one study, burn sites treated with aloe healed completely in less than 16 days compared to 19 days for sites treated with silver sulfadiazine. In a review of the scientific literature, researchers found that patients who were treated with aloe vera healed an average of almost 9 days sooner than those who were not treated with the medicinal plant. In an article about UVA and UVB rays by the Skin Cancer Foundation gives their research about the harmful sun rays. Ultraviolet A rays are long waves and ultraviolet B rays are short waves. Researchers used to believe that UVB rays were the main concern, but UVA is just as bad. “UV radiation is part of the electromagnetic (light) spectrum that reaches the earth from the sun. It has wavelengths shorter than visible light, making it invisible to the naked eye.” Both UVA and UVB go into the atmosphere and are important roles to premature skin aging, eye damage (including cataracts), and skin cancers. They also suppress the immune system, reducing your ability to fight them away. The main cause of skin cancer is by too much ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun. In the UK, 8 out of 10 cases are from melanoma cause by the sun and sunbeds.UVB is responsible for the majority of sunburns.UVA penetrates deep into the skin and ages it, but not much contribution from the sun.The third type of UV ray, UVC, is the most dangerous of all, but it is completely blocked out by the ozone layer and doesn’t reach the earth's surface. Getting sunburned once every two years causes your skin cancer risk by three. Too much sun can also damage DNA, so when DNA damage builds up over time, cells grow out of control, and lead to skin cancer. They say melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers can be invasive by growing across the skin and also having tumours. If the tumour grows through the wall of a blood or lymph vessel, cancer cells break off and spread across the body. John Sottery explains how sunscreen protects skin. Sunscreens are products combining several ingredients that help prevent the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation from reaching the skin. SPF (Sun Protection Factor ) is a measure of a sunscreen's ability to prevent UVB from damaging the skin. A sunscreen product “acts like a very thin bulletproof vest”, that stops UV photons before they reach your skin. Sunscreen has organic sunscreen molecules that take in UV and inorganic pigments that “absorb, scatter and reflect” UVs. Scottery says, “Products with a higher SPF allow fewer of the photons that produce sunburn to strike the skin. In simple terms, you can view an SPF 10 sunscreen as allowing 10 out of every 100 photons to reach the skin and an SPF 20 product as allowing only 5 out of every 100 photons to reach the skin.” Sunscreen is a major factor in not getting sunburnt.
My Poster is with Mrs. Vogl!
Reflection:
For this project we were supposed to do it independently. As soon as I saw Sunburns, I knew I wanted to do it because I could relate to it the best. It was very interesting and fun to do by myself because I didn't have to worry about anyone else! This was our last project and made me more aware of how dangerous Sunburns are.