Don't Get Burned on Spring Break

Today, we cover all things spring break - how to reduce risks if you're drinking in the sun, how to be a smart traveler, and how to keep yourself safe. We also go over how you can have fun, if your passport is to your hometown.

Transcript

Marissa: Welcome to the Last Call Podcast. My name is Marissa Whitaker, and I'm the prevention educator at SUNY Cortland.

Sarah: And my name is Sarah Magowan. I'm the assistant Director of Student Health and Wellness at Onondaga Community College. Our jobs are to educate students about potential risks associated with substance use.

Marissa: We approach substance use from a neutral of stance, and our episodes are rooted in public health with a focus on science and harm reduction.

Sarah: All right, welcome back to the Last Call podcast. So today's episode, we're going to be covering all things spring break. So we know not everyone can afford to go on a wild tropical vacation for spring break, but we're going to be kind of breaking down some ways to stay safe if you do decide to go somewhere or even if you don't decide to go anywhere, ways that you can stay safe and hopefully stay out of trouble.

Marissa: Did you go on spring break when you were in college Sarah?

Sarah: It's funny you ask, because when I was a freshman, my college roommate and I decided it would be a great idea to take a road trip to Florida over spring break.

Marissa: Go on....

Sarah: And we decided that we were going to camp in Tampa, so we drove down. At the time, her now husband was a professional jet skier, so we drove down with his jet ski attached to the back of the Jeep that he had. The wheels were off the ground because he had jet ski weighed so much. It's a miracle that we even made it because the tires were so bald and it was not a smart thing to do. So halfway through the trip, there are raccoons that we could hear all around the campsite.

Marissa: That sounds like my personal hell!

Sarah: So don't take a camping trip to Florida, or if you do, just bring a camper.

Marissa: Oh, my God. So before we get into some of the tips that Sarah had mentioned, just a few overall tips when we're vacationing, and in particular, talking about the overlap between vacation and alcohol. So make sure that you're eating something before you start drinking. We've talked about this in lots of episodes, but drinking on an empty stomach and in the heat and in the sun, you can feel the effects of alcohol much quicker. This means you can also feel sick a lot quicker, combined with being dehydrated. Do you really want to be getting sick on the beach or in a place that you don't know? Like, watch way too much Dateline? Especially when we're talking about the travel safety. So you don't want to be sick and really incapacitated or super intoxicated in a foreign land?

Sarah: Absolutely. Maria so I'm going to sound like a mom when I say this, but sun safety is really important, so you should always wear SPF. The best way to ruin any trip is to get sun poisoning so that you can't enjoy any of it. You always want to use the strongest SPF that you think you need. Please use anything over 15 and make sure that you're reapplying it every 2 hours, especially if you're in and out of the water. Always use a sun hat or protection because you can still get burned even in your hair. UV rays are the strongest from 09:00 A.m. To 03:00 P.m. In the United States, and that could vary based on your time zone. So if you're looking at the UV indexes, an index of three or more means that you should try to stay out of the sun as much as possible and making sure that you're protecting yourself from the sun. So skin cancer is not a souvenir that you want to leave your vacation with.

Marissa: Remember the days of putting, like, SPF foot you may as well have been putting, like, canola oil on?

Sarah: Oh, gosh.

Marissa: What about the whole concept of, like, get your base before you go on vacation?

Sarah: Yamra. So that's a really good point. So you want to avoid tanning before a vacation to get that base tan, because that base tan is actually any tan is a sign of skin damage. So thinking about tanning beds, those actually expose you to a much higher concentration of UV rays, which can lead to higher likelihood of longer term damage from that. It's also important to think about if you don't use sunscreen. I'm sure everyone has seen those people who have tanned their whole lives and kind of have that weathered look to their faces. Chronic exposure of your skin to UV rays causes wrinkling, loss of skin elasticity, and moles that could be potentially cancerous. So not a fun time.

Marissa: I briefly mentioned before about drinking and being dehydrated, but tell me a little bit more about how the sun fits into all of this.

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. So being dehydrated can change how your body processes alcohol, and not in a fun way. So alcohol is a diuretic, which causes you to lose fluid in urine more quickly than if you weren't drinking. So in addition to this, drinking causes your body to not release a hormone that's specifically supposed to help with keeping your body fluids balanced. So it's called antidiatic hormone or adh. And then in addition, any caffeine consumption can further dehydrate you. So on top of potentially being hot and you wanting to drink more just because you feel like you're hot, and it might cause you to be more thirsty. So, Marissa, kind of keeping all that in mind, what can you do to combat this?

Marissa: You can alternate your drinks with water, make sure that you're staying hydrated. That's super important and I think kind of assumed, but saying again, not consuming too much alcohol, you could do this by keeping track of your drinks, thinking about what you're going to drink. If one type of liquor drink causes you to want to drink more or less, like many people have those refreshing drinks that you can just drink a bunch of in the summer sounds good in theory, but not when you're in the hot sun consuming twice as much or three times as much as you normally would have. And then again, reiterating that the sun maximizes the effects of alcohol and sun poisoning, and the hangover is a good way to stay in your hotel room the rest of the vacation.

Sarah: All right, Maris. So now we're going to break down some travel safety tips. It's important to think about if you're going to travel to a foreign country. Different places have different laws and regulations, so it's important to just kind of be aware of some of those before you go. So you might not be nervous about going to jail here, but a little prison time in a foreign country where they speak no English could be a completely different and scary story. And then this goes without saying, regardless of if you're on spring break or not, but don't buy drugs from random strangers. So you have no idea what's in the drugs, and you have no idea.

Marissa: If it's safe even, like, real life current events just happening. Look at Britney Griner. I mean, depending on where you are, there's a weed pen. So other countries don't have the same laws that we do. Other states in the United States don't have the same laws that we do. So cannabis is legal here, but you can't bring that where you're going.

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. And then just keeping in mind if you are traveling and you're in an all inclusive resort, do your best to keep an eye on travel and safety advisories and make sure that, if possible, you stay within the resort going along.

Marissa: The lines of travel safety, whether that's before you travel or while you're on vacation, be careful with your social media. I'm sure you want to show the world that you're in Mexico, having the time of your life, but you're also telling people that you're not home right now. So you can post the pictures, but maybe wait until you come back so people don't know that you're actively out of your house. Also, lock your stuff up, whether that's in your residence hall or your apartment before you leave, or in your hotel room or your airbnb when you're on vacation.

Sarah: Morris how about if you're traveling by car while you're on vacation?

Marissa: We've seen some of these horror stories, and again, this isn't set up to scare people or make you afraid to go on vacation. This is really just more to have some awareness about your surroundings while you're there. So before you leave your hotel, take a card from the front desk with the name and number of the hotel in case you get separated, especially if you're drinking. If you're three to six drinks deep and you get separated from your group, you want to know where you're going. And do you really remember of all the hotels when there's like, hotel by the Sea, Sea Hotel, Shell City, they're all like the same sort of cliche vacation hotel. So make sure you know where you're staying. If you are vacationing in a place where your DD is an Uber, Lyft or taxi, look for their identification before you get in the car and be sure that the driver in the license or the picture of the driver match before you get into the car. And once you're in the car, stay alert. Follow along on Google Maps to be sure you're going in the right direction. And just, again, be aware of your surroundings. You want to be safe, you want to be cautious. You want to be aware of what's going on around you, especially if you're drinking.

Sarah: I think that's another thing that kind of consider is if your guard already isn't down, you in the back of your mind should be thinking about some of these things because you're already a little less aware than you would be, as if you were sober going along with everything you said. Morris I think this doesn't prevent everything, but something that can be extremely helpful in a lot of these situations is making sure that you're staying with friends. So we talk about the buddy system as a protective measure. But it's always important to stay with someone that you know, regardless of if you're on spring break or not, just in general, even in a party situation. So a lot of people, too, don't trust their gut. So if you get into one of these situations and something doesn't feel right, listen to that. Because not everyone in the world is here for good and not everyone has your best intentions in mind.

Marissa: And if you see someone who is in need of medical attention, get them help. You can be a good Samaritan anywhere. So those are some tips you could do if you are lucky enough to get to vacation for your spring break. But there are things that you can do if you're staying home for break, too. So if you're feeling productive, you could earn some extra money. Maybe you have a seasonal job that you can go back to for the week. You could also and this is how I spent my spring breaks, you can also find a new show to watch. But just like alcohol, you can binge TV, too. So alternate episodes, maybe sometimes that feels a bit more productive. Or if we're taking the harm reduction approach and this is definitely not me projecting, maybe like alternate a couple episodes with something else that feels more productive. You could also work ahead in your classes and probably doesn't sound like the ideal way to spend your break, and I feel really bad even suggesting that, but that could get some of the pressure off your to do list when you come back from break. Or you could also just take it easy, caring for yourself is really important, and you work hard during the academic year, so take some time for yourself and some of this downtime.

Sarah: So regardless if you're going somewhere or you're staying home, please take spring break to kind of recharge and prepare yourself for the rest of the semester. But no matter what you're doing, just remember to do it safely. And try and keep in mind some of the tips that we went over in our episode today.

Marissa: Have fun. Don't get a tan. Bye.