Skin cancer: ‘Sun, friend or foe?’

Sun: friend or foe?

As every year in May, a new awareness campaign is being organised for the general public on the theme: ‘Sun: friend or foe?’ This campaign follows on from last year's campaign: ‘Check your moles’, which focused on early detection of melanoma.

Since then, the national network has begun to develop health education materials. These actions will continue from 2006 to 2008.

The national network is composed of:

• the Ministry of Health,
• the Medical-Social League,
• the Ministry of Family and Integration,
• the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training,
• the Luxembourg Society of Dermatology and Venereology.

Objectives

The objective of this national network and awareness campaign is to encourage children, adolescents and adults to adopt preventive behaviours with regard to sun exposure and to manage their ‘sun capital’ effectively throughout their lives.

Prolonged exposure and frequent sunburn during childhood have an impact on the development of skin cancer many years later.

Actions

In 2006, the actions of this national network are:

• raising public awareness through the publication and distribution of a new brochure and poster, radio and TV broadcasts,
• conferences on the theme ‘Sun, friend or foe?’,
• workshops in pre-schools, primary schools and secondary schools.

The network will continue to develop health promotion materials. These will be used in health education activities as part of school medicine programmes in pre-school, primary and secondary schools.

As part of training for youth workers, awareness of the benefits and harms of the sun will be further developed. Appropriate materials will be distributed by the Ministry of Family and Integration as part of leisure activities for children and young people.