Time to pay to protect kids
We are failing our children by not funding the job of protecting them from skin cancer. School sun protection and education is not government funded despite New Zealand having the deadliest melanoma rate in the world.
Every year, more than 69,000 skin cancers are diagnosed and 500 Kiwis die from skin cancer. Ninety per cent of skin cancers could be prevented by reducing sun exposure. The best time to develop the lifetime habits that reduce sun exposure is in primary school. Seeking shade, dressing appropriately – whether that is a school uniform or not – and crucially, always wearing a hat, should be key public health measures for schools.
University of Otago research fellow Bronwen McNoe surveyed 1243 schools with Tony Reeder and presented their findings on Wednesday. They found 74 per cent of schools had shade for children to sit in and have lunch, but only 14 per cent had adequate shade for active activities.
When it comes to active play, and especially at combined school events such as athletics days and outdoor swimming sports, many children can end up in full sun all day. That makes wearing sunhats, ideally wide-brimmed ones, even more important.
At a rural school in the sundrenched top of the south, the school board tackled the issue a few years ago. There had been no sun smart policies in place and the school ended up making hats compulsory. But it did not adopt the recommended wide-brimmed hats as teachers maintained children would not wear them. It provided all the school’s children with free bucket hats and bought a gazebo for sun protection at events outside the school. Such measures are not prohibitively expensive, although installing shade sails or similar structures can get costly. But as school parents know only too well, every extra is a drain on the limited pool of funds schools have to pay for everything beyond the basics.
The Ministry of Education says it ‘‘supports schools in ensuring the health and wellbeing of their students is protected’’ and ensures shade protection in new schools, but existing schools have to selffund sun smart improvements. Given the high risks of our harsh sun exposure and the country’s alarming melanoma rate, sun protection at state-funded primary schools – where children spend at least six of the sunniest hours of the day – should be funded by the taxpayer.
That would be a cost-effective disease prevention measure that could likely be justified by even the most actuarial of Treasury officials. But more important than that, protecting vulnerable children from an entirely preventable disease is the right thing to do.