Kids are skin cancer smart

SKIN cancer is a very present and clear danger in the tropical north.

The region is one of the hot spots for skin cancer.

Clinics have sprung up that specialise solely in treatment for skin cancers.

Many are booked out for months. The waiting rooms are full of older people, those who were brought up in an era not realising the dangers of sunburn or others who chose to ignore the perils and now are ruing the day.

Fortunately the children of today are smart enough to heed the warnings and it is the youngsters who are leading the way and scolding their parents who don’t slip, slop and slap.

There is evidence that the sun protection campaign is now reducing skin cancer rates.

Thirty-six years after the Cancer Council’s Sid the Seagull launched his sun protection campaign new research shows the message has changed the habits of young kids and they are more sun conscious than their parents.

A Cancer Council poll has found 95 per cent of Australians agree that kids today do a better job at protecting themselves from the sun than the grown-ups did when they were young.

Three-quarters of adults think children these days are better at wearing sunscreen, while 65 per cent said today’s children are more likely to wear protective clothing like rashies and hats.

A disappointing fact is that the proportion of adults who get sunburnt at the weekend hasn’t improved and now sits at 17 per cent, equivalent to more than 2.7 million adults.

That’s not smart at all.

Nick Dalton Deputy editor