Transcript

The largest organ in the body is skin. It consists of three layers:

• the outer layer or epidermis

• the dermis, the layer under the epidermis containing the sweat glands and hair follicles

• the subcutaneous fat layer below the dermis.

UVR passes into the skin damaging the cells. This may lead to sunburn and the skin can appear red. If there is a lot of sun exposure there can be a change in the genetic material (DNA) in the cells and this may lead to the growth of a tumour.

Interesting skin facts

If you spread your skin out it would be a strip one metre long and 1.8 metres wide.

New skin grows continually and old skin flakes off (cockroach food).

Skin is renewed every 28 days.

There are 6 million skin cells per square centimetre.

Every minute you lose more than 30 000 skin cells.

When you drink water your skin swells.