Why is white skin more prone to sunburns when whiteness typically is better for reflecting light and not absorbing heat, compared to darkness?
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Melanin is a pigment important in absorbing and protecting the skin from UV rays. White people don’t have that much melanin
White skin lacks a pigment called melanin. Along with giving pigmentation to the cells, melanin also absorbs harmful UV rays and protects against cellular damage from UV light exposure. This people who lack melanin are more prone to sunburn
Without the chemical that absorbs UV, our skin is more transparent and the bad stuff hits deeper doing more damage.
UV rays and visible light are on different wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Energy in the form of visible light bounces off light-colored skin.
Energy in the form of UV rays does not bounce off light-colored skin, but penetrates and causes damage.
“white” skin isn’t white. Its kind-of pink. Basically, “white” skin is translucent.
Translucent skin does a bad job of reflecting harmful UV rays.
As a side note, one of the most effective ways to protect yourself is to use zinc-oxide as a sun-block. Most people don’t because it looks ugly. It looks ugly because it is pure white.
Others replied correctly how melanin in the skin protects against the sun’s radiation.
However, the dark color does indeed absorb more heat from the sunlight which also make Africans potentially more at risk for sunstroke than white Europeans.
Whiteness is good for reflecting *visible* light, but it’s the UV component of sunlight that causes damage.
Dark skin looks dark because it has more melanin, a dark pigment. Besides absorbing visible light, melanin also absorbs UV wavelength light well, protecting the tissues deeper than the surface melanin from being damaged.
Other answers here are lackluster. It’s not a question of physics; the statement you made is true if we were talking about a white nonorganic surface vs. a black nonorganic surface.
It’s a matter of biochemistry. 1. Sunburns are not due to heat, they’re due to radiation damaging cells of the epidermis. In fact, UV-A passes through windows, which will damage your skin without sunburning it (or you feeling hot). 2. Melanin’s UV-protective properties are not because of its color, but rather its molecular properties that allow it to dissipate UV radiation as heat. Chlorophyll in plants (green, not black) also isn’t bothered by UV radiation by other molecular means.
white skin is not actually the color white just as black skin is not actually the color black
Melanin protects the skin from the UV rays which is why it is rare for people with darker skin to get sun burned
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