Importance of sun protection

A new study finds less than one-third of children between 11 and 18 years old regularly use sun protection.

Skin cancer is considered the most common cancer in the United States.

The majority of people polled believe it’s important to protect their skin from the sun, but many still reported getting sunburns.

To increase the use of sun protection, the young people polled made a couple of suggestions, like increasing product accessibility.

“I think it was a very good point and as we look at some other countries, they do better at even accessibility of sunscreen at public pools or public locations,” said Dr. Joan Tamburro, a pediatric dermatologist. “When we talk about the dollars spent per year in this country on skin cancer, you know, is it worth us all to say let’s put money toward that and have it in locations where they can just easily access it.”

It’s recommended parents show their kids how to apply sunscreen at an early age, so they continue those habits when they get older.