SUMMER'S here, and the weathermen have predicted a heatwave. For many of us Scots that sounds like good news. But every time the temperature soars, it's bad news for our skin.

It has been hard to miss the headlines lately that illustrate that only too well: reports of Hayley Barlow, of Liverpool, who has the skin of a 25-year-old at the age of 14 after daily sessions on the sunbed; or Alexandra Lines, a 22-year-old fair-skinned music student from Essex who died of skin cancer after topping-up holiday tans with trips to the tanning parlour.

These tales are extreme, but they point to a real obsession with getting that tan, even if it means harming your health.

In 2003, 197 Scots died from skin cancer, and the number of people diagnosed with the disease has increased more than threefold since the 70s, with 7349 new cases in 2001.

Dr Jamie Inglis, a consultant in public health medicine, currently compiling a report on skin cancer for Health Scotland, reckons those extra cases are down to cosmetic tanning - that is, sunbathing on holiday, catching rays at home, or going to the sunbeds. Basically, those deaths have arisen from the desire to look sun-kissed.

"It's a very heavy price to pay, " he says.

Dr Inglis believes Scotland should follow the World Health Organisation's recommendation and ban tanning salons for under-18s.

At the moment, salons don't permit under-16s to use their equipment, but it's not that easy to draw the line. "Sometimes it's difficult to know what age people are, " admits one salon worker.

"Teenagers look so much older now." And the problem's worse in unmanned salons, where anyone can just walk through the door, pop in a few coins and have as many sessions as they like.

"That's a great concern, " says Dr Inglis. "High-pressure sunbeds, like the standing up ones, will in two minutes give you the equivalent of a day's Mediterranean sunshine." That may sound like a great idea to some young people, such as Hayley, for whom the chance to bag a day's Spanish sun in just two minutes on a British high street was just too tempting.

"Being brown is very important to me, " she told the newspapers, although her natural skin colour was more like a pale English rose.

Hayley's obsession with tanning was so strong that some experts called it tanorexia - a compulsive need to be tanned.

While Glaswegians Graeme Fraser, 17, and Emma MacDougall, 16, wouldn't go as far as that, they do understand the pressure Hayley faced to look brown.

"It's like you feel better when you've got a bit of colour, like you've just been on holiday, " says Graeme.

"And all the magazines are full of people with tans, " adds Emma. "It's hard not to want to be like that." But Fatima Bholah, fashion and beauty editor at Mizz, doesn't agree: "We have a fashion shoot in the current magazine with tanned models, but it's set in Miami, and the models are Brazilian." She says her magazine does not glamourise tanning - if anything, it takes the mickey out of famous "orange" celebs, such as Jordan and Posh, and runs articles similar to this week's "Bronzed off".

"We do know that there are teens doing sunbeds, but its something that we don't promote, " she says.

"We don't even advise products like St Tropez fake tan - some of the girls in the office can't master it, so we wouldn't want 13-yearolds to use it and go to class in the morning looking like they've been rolling in the mud.

"I don't think we're obsessed with tanning, " she adds. "It's just something that comes up every summer.

"Yes, there are a handful of teenagers who take tanning to another level, but most of our readers are very savvy." Sam Kearne, director of Glasgow model agency The Model Team, admits that outing your pale goosebumped Scottish skin at the first sign of summer will always be difficult.

She remembers when models would be told to go to the sunbed if a client wanted them to look tanned for a fashion shoot - and that was only five years ago.

Now, she says, both male and female models will be told to use fake tan. "Sunbeds are messing with nature, " she says. "The flipside to wanting a tan is that, when you get a bit older, you want to look 20 for the rest of your life.

"If you've been using a sunbed you'll have wrinkles and liver spots - and that won't look very nice." Dr Inglis does think our attitude to tanning is slowly changing.

According to Boots the chemists, sales of sunscreen are up, as are the factors we're buying, and fake tan has become the cosmetic industry's fastest growing market.

But old myths still prevail. Many teenagers believe that a session on a sunbed will protect your skin from being burnt on holiday (it won't), and that tanning is good for spots (it's not).

One episode of sunburn in an under 16-year-old doubles the risk of skin cancer in later life. It's enough to make you wonder why we want that tan in the first place.

Tips for a safe tan

NO matter where you are going on holiday, but especially if you are travelling abroad to a hot climate, the most important thing is to stay out of the sun in the middle of the day, when it is at its hottest - from 11am to 3pm.

You don't see any locals in Spain or Greece sitting around at noon - they have more sense, and retire for a long lunch or a siesta.

The worst thing to do is get sunburnt on the first day of your holiday as it makes the rest of your stay a misery.

Always wear clothing that will protect you from the sun: longsleeved shirts and blouses, long shorts or trousers and a hat.

Sunglasses are important too, because UV radiation is the principal reason for cataracts in the UK. Sunglasses don't cost the earth and could save your sight.

Don't forget to take your suntan lotion with you and apply it regularly. Few people realise that lower-factor sunscreen - such as factor 15 - needs to be applied in a thicker layer than most people would normally use.

All sunscreens should be re-applied every couple of hours and without exception, always after swimming. Sunscreen will allow you to stay in the sun longer, but long spells in the sun are only possible with high factor sunscreen, re-applied regularly.

A factor 10 will protect you from 80-per cent of UV radiation; factor 15 from 92-per cent; factor 20, 95-per cent and factor 30, 97-per cent.

But remember, while wearing sunscreen is vital in a hot climate, it is shade and clothing that will give you the ultimate protection against the sun's deadly rays.

Having a tan really cheers me up

Leighanne Pugalis, 15, from Edinburgh

"NEARLY everyone I know uses fake tan. I've got fake tan and I get a spray tan done sometimes in the salon. I've been using it for the last couple of years. I usually put it on before I go out, or when I feel that I'm looking quite white, especially in the winter.

"When you're pale or you see someone with a tan, you feel really white; sometimes it feels like everyone's got a tan and, if you don't, you feel left out.

"Most of my pals are quite pale too, and most of them do use fake tan, especially when they go out.

"There are a lot of messages out there telling you to be tanned. There are all the celebrities with tans in magazines and on TV, and they're really, really tanned.

"On some people it can look too much - I wouldn't want to look orange, like Jordan. That's over the top. But when you're sitting next to someone and you're whiter, it does make you want to have a tan. Having a tan cheers me up, and it makes me feel more confident, I don't know why. I'm just used to having one.

"We go on quite a lot of holidays so I do like to get a tan when I'm away. If you've been on holiday and if you come back without one, people are like, where have you been?

"But I always wear sun lotion when I go on holiday. That's because of my mum and dad telling me and seeing stuff on the news about skin cancer. When I go on holiday I start off on factor 30 and I don't go below 15.

"I know a few girls in my year who go to the sunbeds, but I've heard too many bad stories about them, about girls who'd been covered in blisters, and people getting burnt from going under for too long.

"And then there's skin cancer. It's not worth it. I don't think there would be circumstances where I'd risk my health to look good."