Pimple like bumps on arms after sun exposure?!

Pimple like bumps on arms after sun exposure?

my hubby is in construction and has been for years, so sun exposure is nothing new for him. he changed jobs this year but is still outside for his entire workday. he's very tanned because of this, but after getting a really bad burn a couple of weeks ago he's noticed these small red bumps on his forearms. they are not itchy or irritating, but they are very visible. they resemble pimples, but don't seem to be going away. any ideas on what these are? was it due to the sunburn? should i make him go see the doctor? thanks in advance!

2 weeks ago
okay, so he's 28 and been in construction for about 9-10 years. i looked at the porphyria photos and it's definitely not that. it's about 6-7 little pimple like things.

Assuming that to have been in construction 'for years' he is not a young guy.

Long ago men bled regularly, they went to war, the got hurt hunting, they bled more than the occassional smashed thumb. Iron is from meat, and until pretty historically lately people did not get all the meat they might have wanted, so to make up for this blood loss people's bodies hoard iron...

As men age, a lot of them accumulate iron in their bodies, and that iron is a health risk in many ways. Sometimes it is a hereditary thing, and not too uncommon. Sometimes it is just a lifestyle thing, from eating a great lot of iron rich food for many years. It is a risk factor for cancers, liver troubles, diabetes... all sorts of unpleasant and expensive things. Almost nobody ever checks to see if a man has iron overload. If the iron overload is bad, there are a lot of vague unpleasant symptoms, like arthritis and fatigue... but it also sometimes causes porphyria cutanea tarda, which is a build up of iron containing substances in the skin, that react with sunshine to make little blisters. If you have them, it is a nice tip off to do something about this before it gets to be a real issue. You begin to get a reaction to sun that looks like little red bumps, which can take a month or more to heal.

You could go get it checked with a non-too-expensive blood test, and this is probably a good idea, because the people who show these little blisters tend to have chronic hepatitis or sometimes liver cancers, and that should be checked. If those things are fine, the cure is to give blood regularly, and this is both free and a good enough thing to do that you might just want to do it anyway.

An image is available here:
http://dermatlas.med.jhmi.edu/derm/resul...

But mine are a lot smaller and more numerous than the ones shown.