By Zain Ahmad

Labor Day weekend is around the corner. Since this is the last weekend of the summer, you may have plans for a picnic, barbecue or outdoor games. However you spend it, here are ways to stay safe during your holiday and make it memorable.

The most overlooked, though an important habit is sun safety. Prolonged exposure of your skin to the sun can cause skin cancer. Some of the best ways to stay safe in the sun are:

• Wear long sleeved clothing and a hat. For baseball-type hats, make sure to wear sunscreen for the back of your neck and ears.
• While hats are a good way of sun protection, sunglasses are important too. UV rays damage your eyes with time. The best way of protecting your eyes from the sun is by wearing sunglasses that block UVA and UVB rays.
• Sunscreen should be applied to any exposed part of the body. Any sunscreen with a SPF of 30 or higher is necessary for going outdoors to keep your skin safe. Make sure to put sunscreen around every 2 hours and get new sunscreen if the current one expires.

An extremely popular method of celebrating Labor Day is by hosting picnics and eating outdoors. Here are a few safety tips for eating outdoors.

The most important tip is keeping yourself well hydrated. Always prepare for an ample supply of clean drinking water. Second, when preparing and eating food, always make sure to keep cold food cold and keep hot food hot. This will ensure that the food is at the right temperature and will terminate any bacterial growth. Other important tips are:

• Make sure to pack all cold food in a cooler, keeping the temperature under 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Make sure that the types of food are separated to prevent any mix of ingredients inside the food. For example, keeping any type of meat next to vegetables will have the juice from the meat being transferred to the vegetables, and that results in cross-contamination.
• Any fruits or vegetables should be cleaned and rinsed before being eaten.
• Grilling also goes with outdoor picnics. Before you start grilling, you always want to make sure that marinated food stays in the refrigerator, and to not reuse marinade. 
• Make sure that your food served is clean, and that there are no other objects that have found their way into your food.
• When serving food, make sure that no utensils are reused as this also causes cross-contamination.
• After grilling, take all precautions to put off the fire. This will prevent any fire mishaps.

Staying safe in the sun, and while eating and grilling, will make your Labor Day a fun-filled holiday!