Ducey: Let the sun (screen) in!

Officials encourage protecting youths

In late April, with one swoop of his pen, Gov. Doug Ducey rejected the federal prohibition of sunscreen use at schools, daycares and summer camps without a parental note (or doctor’s prescription).

The Food and Drug Administration started classifying sunscreen as an overthe-counter medication in 2011, and many schools banned its use by students, according to The Associated Press, causing parents to slather their kids at home.

But Arizona, and Yuma in particular, gets about 365 days of sunshine a year, and protecting young skin from cancer is vital, said Crane School District’s incoming superintendent, Laurie Doering.

“In Arizona, we do have higher numbers of skin cancer cases than other states, and we fully support students protecting their skin and practicing healthy habits at young ages,” Doering wrote in an email to the Yuma Sun. “Students applying and re-applying sunscreen, to my knowledge, is not widespread in our schools.”

To that end, the district “believes sunscreen application is an important step to preventing skin cancer and future skin damage,” she continued.

In recent years, Arizona has instituted a task force to increase the reporting of melanoma, a type of skin cancer. According to a fact sheet on melanoma from the Arizona Department of Health Services, the skin cancer was “the fifth most common invasive cancer in males and the sixth most common invasive cancer in females in Arizona in 2012.”

Republican Rep. Heather Carter of Phoenix suburb Cave Creek sponsored the legislation. She’s pushed bills limiting sun and UVray exposure for children to help cut the number of skin cancer cases.

“Please use sunscreen!” said Crane School District’s nurse coordinator Jill Karriker. “We have never required a note to protect our kids from the sun. We encourage it!”