Call for baseball cap ban

Cancer ‘inaction’ panned

A GOLD Coast plastic surgeon who has removed more than 60,000 skin lesions is calling for an all-out ban on baseball caps to win the war on skin cancer.

Associate Professor Ian McDougall, who has worked on the frontline of Queensland’s skin cancer epidemic in his 50-year career, said he sees daily the horrific consequences and lifelong scarring caused by sun safety failures.

Sick of inaction, Prof McDougall – who first called for a ban in 2013 – said wearing baseball caps and cricket’s “baggy green” should be discouraged or even banned because of the scant sun protection they offered.

“There are so many people out there with parts of their ears or nose missing. We have known about the dangers of the sun for years but are still not doing enough,” he said.

“I believe we should consider a ban on caps to lower the rates of cancer.

“People only seem to be aware of melanomas, yet basal cell (bottom of the skin’s outermost layer) and squamous cell (top of outermost skin layer) cancers have a far greater cost to the community and are frequently causing severe aesthetic issues in the head and neck areas. The patient has to live with their appearance until the end of time.”

Prof McDougall believes the issue is so extreme that tanning and not covering up should become as taboo and stigmatised as smoking.

“There is nothing worse than seeing people blatantly put their lives at risk,” he said.

He also took a swipe at the Cancer Council for what he described as outdated campaigns.

“If the Slip, Slop, Slap program, which began in 1981, was effective there would now be evidence of a decrease in the number of skin cancers. That is not occurring significantly and the Cancer Council should address the issue,” Prof McDougall said.

“There is still, after 38 years, ignorance about sun screens and the wearing of caps. What other campaign stays the same for four decades?”

According to Cancer Council statistics, incidences of melanomas in Queensland increased from 864 in 1982 to 3749 in 2015.

Evidence, however, also shows that rates of melanoma in Queensland are stabilising or declining in all age groups under 60 years, consistent with a positive effect from skin cancer prevention programs such as SunSmart, the council said.

Prof McDougall said young doctors were not being taught to diagnose skin cancers properly and needed more exposure to skin cancer patients.

“I meet very intelligent final year students who have no idea of the basics,” he said.

Heather Walker, who chairs the Cancer Council’s national skin cancer committee, said good sun protection was about more than just sunscreen but did not directly address Dr McDougall’s concerns.

“Evidence shows that exposure to skin cancer prevention campaigns leads to an increase in SunSmart behaviour,” she said.