Skin Cancer Prevention: Re-evaluating the Public policy Implications

Skin cancer is the world’s most prevalent cancer. Combating it will require a focus on childhood sun exposure, which is crucial in determining future skin cancer risks. However, the consensus about health education campaigns promoting sun safety, particularly for children, is that they have raised public awareness but left behavior largely unchanged. This article combines a review of the sun safety and skin cancer literature with insights gained from Australian and U.K. focus group research into childhood sun safety. It demonstrates the breadth and complexity of the challenge that confronts public policymakers seeking to create a more sun-safe society, and it presents a case for (1) more wide-ranging and integrated sun safety programs, (2) public policy initiatives with a dual focus on changing families’ sun exposure behavior and on creating a supportive public sector environment, (3) applying a social marketing approach to promoting sun safety, and (4) treating skin cancer prevention differently from most other disease prevention initiatives. It is a field in which an effective blend of marketing and public policymaking has the potential to do enormous good