Sunscreen Petition for Schools

Please sign the petition (open to the general public) where we are focusing our efforts now.  It has over 14,000 signatures!

https://www.change.org/p/support-sunscreening-in-schools-5-minutes-to-save-a-life

There was also an open letter signed by 670 doctors that was published across Newscorp publications, and sent directly to the federal education and health ministers that I am attaching for some background.

The Victorian AMA has written a statement of support and I will be meeting with federal AMA policy makers to discuss this further later this week.  

Greens member Dr Sarah Mansfield raised this in Victorian parliament as an adjournment matter on the 5th of Feb, and it is awaiting a response by the state education minister.  https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/parliamentary-activity/questions-database/question-details/33202

To:
The Hon Jason Clare MP
Minister for Education
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

The Hon Mark Butler MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Subject: Urgent Call for Mandatory Sunscreen Application Time in Australian Schools

Dear Minister Clare and Minister Butler,

We are a group of concerned doctors calling for Australian schools to be required to set aside 5 minutes at the start of lunch time for students to reapply sunscreen.  These 5 minutes will quite literally save lives.

Because sunscreen applied in the morning has lost effectiveness by lunchtime, children across Australia are spending about an hour a day outside, at a time when the UV is at its peak, with no effective sun protection except a hat. 

Australia has the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, and 2 out of 3 Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime.  Melanoma, the most lethal skin cancer, remains the most common cancer among Australians aged 15-29.  Around 2000 Australians die from skin cancer every year, and skin cancer costs our health care system over 1.7 billion dollars a year. 

It is well recognised that early life sun exposure is a major risk factor for developing skin cancer and also that correct sunscreen application reduces the risk of skin cancers by between 35-50%

Schools are not currently required to provide dedicated sunscreening time.  Many schools have a policy of reminding students to reapply sunscreen before lunch but this is not always followed consistently and leaves it up to kids to follow through.  This requires children as young as 4 or 5 to have the impulse control to take time away from their play to sit and apply sunscreen. This is not a developmentally appropriate expectation for primary school aged children, who don’t yet have the capacity to independently engage in long term risk reduction behaviours.

UV is a class 1 carcinogen.  As a society our expectation is that while our children are at school the school will keep our children safe.  By leaving it up to young children to be responsible for preventing a lifelong cancer risk our schools are setting kids up to fail and failing in their duty of care. 

With 1 in 4 Aussie kids believing that a tan protects against skin cancer Australia needs to work harder when it comes to sun safety.  By ingraining sun safe habits from an early age this proposal has the potential to make Australians safer and lower our rates of skin cancer for generations to come. 

This is a free, easily implementable policy that will save lives, reduce harm and suffering, save dollars from our country’s future healthcare budgets and it only takes 5 minutes a day.  

Yours sincerely, 

A/Prof James Lynam

MOGA Chair