skin-cancer

Banana Boat sunscreen: Woman and children suffer 'horrific' burns, blame SPF 50 product

Melbourne sales manager Briar Houston said she could hardly walk after the backs of her legs were sunburnt so badly they become blistered and swollen after she used Banana Boat's spray-on SPF 50 product.

"It was horrific, I wouldn't wish it on anyone," she told the ABC.

"I had other SPF factor everywhere else and I only put the Banana Boat SPF 50 aerosol on the back of my legs.

"I was not burnt anywhere else, not my face or my shoulders, no burns anywhere else."

Goosebumps may hold key for skin cancer, baldness and burns treatment

But new research shows that we may have been underestimating the role of the humble goosebump.

Professor Rod Sinclair, dermatologist at the University of Melbourne, explained he had been "following a hunch" that goosebumps were not just an evolutionary by-product.

It turns out that Professor Sinclair's hunch may have been on track, as his new research shows the "goosebump muscle" could hold the key for skin cancer, baldness and burns treatment.

"As we do more research we find that nothing is for nothing. It's almost as though there's a grand design to the body.