Don't be stupid under the sun.

Noel Coward sang that "mad dogs and Englishmen go out in noon-day sun," but Americans tend to do so also. For years, a deep tan has been equated with vibrancy, good looks, and well-being.

However, hanging out under the noon-day sun - or even the morning sun, for that matter - is not a wise thing to do, indicates dermatologist Howard Gerber, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. People have many misconceptions about the sun that can do real harm to their skin, he points out. Some of more common include the following:

You can't get a sunburn when it's cloudy. Such a belief is absolutely false. "Not all of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which is that causes sunburn and harms your skin, is filtered by the clouds. When the sun isn't beating down on you, and you aren't hot and sweaty, you naturally want to stay outside longer. But in actuality, you may expose yourself to a higher dose of UV radiation - and therefore get burned - because you're staying outside longer."

"We only have a few days, so let's get as much sun as we can." People who think this way usually are those who haven't had much exposure to the sun. They may be coming from a cold climate and want to spend excessive amounts of time in the sun. "The problem with this approach is that you're setting yourself up for an intense burn, and may even become ill from the sun exposure."

Gerber warns that an acute, intense burn eventually could lead to skin cancer. "It appears that people who have had several intense, but short exposures to the sun and have burned are at higher risk of melanoma. The other skin cancers...