“A healthy tan”? You don’t hear that much anymore. Most people know that sun exposure has been linked to skin cancer.

And as Consumer Reports’ testers have found, sunscreens have become better over the years: easier to apply, lasting longer and offering better protection against multiple forms of ultraviolet radiation. So why do rates of skin cancer continue to climb?

One reason is increased awareness, says Allan Halpern, chief of the dermatology service at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“The incidence is greater, in part, because we are looking harder and finding more cancers at an earlier stage,” he says. “Also, people are living longer.” The damage from ultraviolet radiation might take decades to become apparent and is cumulative, so skin-cancer risk increases with age... Read More