| In addition to the CDC’s new policies regarding the importance of sun safety education in the public schools, a new study directed by the AMC Cancer Research Center in Denver further illustrates how far behind elementary schools are in the need for developing sun protection policies. This study was reviewed in the Skin Cancer Foundation’s “Sun & Skin News” (Vol 19, No 4, 2002). In this study, 412 principals from randomly selected U.S. elementary schools were interviewed about what their schools did for sun safety. Only 3.4 percent said their schools had any sun protection policy, such as scheduling outdoor activities to avoid the hours of peak UV exposure, or requiring children to wear shirts with sleeves, wide-brimmed hats or sunscreen. The lead researcher on this study, Dr. David B. Buller, noted that “since so few schools have sun safety guidelines, and since many have policies detrimental to sun safety, children and staff often remain unprotected when outside.” This presents a significant problem since 84% of the principals said their student s spend time outdoors between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the sun is most intense. Additionally, since severe sunburns in childhood can promote later development of melanoma, Dr. Buller concluded that, “to prevent future skin cancers, our schools must provide more protection from the sun’s harmful UV rays.” One problem the researchers discovered was that school administrators were unaware of skin cancer as a health problem or the role that their school could play in limiting sun exposure. Complete sun-safety programs for schools children would include instituting some of the following changes: -
adding shade trees to school grounds -
building shade structures with wider overhangs and side barriers -
rescheduling outdoor activities to early morning or late afternoon -
using darker-colored soils and paints to reduce sun reflection -
allowing and encouraging the using of sunscreen, brimmed hats and sunglasses on school grounds. Dr. Buller maintained that educating parents to help educate the educators to increase shade, avoid midday exposure, and educating parents to send children to school wearing wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses and sunscreen, “would be half the battle”. |
