| A Burning Issue |
|
| Tuesday, 15 July 2008 | |
|
Rather than imposing sun-protection strategies on children, parents need to educate them to save their own skins, writes Jane Eldridge. As if being sprung throwing vegetable peels into the bin instead of the compost wasn't bad enough, I was later caught red-handed wasting water while I cleaned my teeth! My children are avid environmentalists who are determined to lighten my carbon footprint. And they are slowly succeeding, because I no longer use the car air-conditioner and I have finally come round to the half-flush policy! Education and the mass media have empowered our children to assume responsibility for our environmental problems. Their commitment to addressing environmental issues drives home the stark realisation that provided they can see the worthiness of an objective, children will commit to achieving it. It is therefore a sobering thought that we as parents, who play a major role in identifying and selecting worthwhile objectives for our children, have neglected to isolate one serious objective - the prevention of melanoma. Australia has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world. Exposure to the sun is the highest risk factor for melanoma, particularly intermittent exposure and - more poignantly - exposure that occurs before the age of 20. A childhood or teenage history of sunburn can therefore be a significant predisposing factor to melanoma in adulthood. From a parental perspective, these are risks that cannot be ignored. It was fifty years ago when the link was first made between melanoma and the sun - when a landmark paper entitled ‘Sunlight as a cause of melanoma' was published by Drs Lancaster and Nelson in the Medical Journal of Australia. As the evidence linking ultraviolet radiation to melanoma began to grow, campaigns were launched to alert Australians to the dangers of the sun. The first and most renowned of these was the ‘slip slop slap' campaign in 1981 that urged the public to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat. Since that time, the Cancer Councils of the States and Territories have implemented numerous skin-cancer prevention programs that have positively altered attitudes to sun exposure and contributed towards successful treatment of melanoma through early detection. I believe that most informed parents would gloat that their children are adequately protected from overexposure to the sun. After all, most of us are guilt-free when it comes to ‘slip, slop, slapping' our little ones and, sure, we all endorse the likes of the ‘no hat, no play' policy. But there's the rub! I vehemently contend that we have got it all wrong and that children's education must change if we are to effectively combat melanoma. In essence, what we are doing is imposing sun-protection strategies on our children instead of empowering them to assume responsibility for their own sun protection. For these strategies to be effective, children need to want to employ them. I would argue that their education is deficient in that they have not been inspired to commit to solving the problem themselves. Children wear hats, rashies and sunscreen in blind obedience to us, their parents. But once they reach their teenage years, peer pressure and the influence of the media tend to kick in, along with a disdain for legionnaires' hats. Body image assumes mammoth proportions and a tan becomes vital. In view of these factors, it is futile to expect young people to sustain an ideology that has been imposed upon them. Yet there is hope. Children can and will confront and commit to this challenge if we provide education. If children comprehend the rationale for exercising sun-safe behaviour, they are more likely to adhere to it well into their teens and in adulthood. We simply need to grant them ownership and responsibility for the problem. I believe that we can achieve this end by including the issue under the environmental banner. Environmental issues are deemed compelling, whereas the sun-safety issue is seen as boring, attracting lip-service only. And to treat sun safety as an environmental issue is not such a long stretch. After all, by virtue of ozone depletion, there is less protection from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays -and that is an environmental issue. I think we are selling our kids short. I believe they are capable of solving this problem. They can and will reduce the incidence of melanoma in Australia if we set them the objective and give them the information that inspires them to end this senseless loss of lives. We will have achieved this goal when children are urging their parents to ‘slip, slop, slap'! |
Comment Form
Register your FREE account now to leave your own comment and help us build a great online community for parents across Australia.
No Comments, register now to leave one!
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter |
Calendar
Check out what's happening near you in our up-to-date calendar!
Directory
Looking to buy, sell or trade something?Reader Offers
Your chance to win some great prizes.Store
Browse our Store for magazine subscriptions, family organisers and more...
