The weather has been nice for days and this weekend the temperatures are increasing even further. Many people therefore go out to enjoy that early spring sun. Yet not everyone is aware of the dangers of the first rays on the still pale winter skin.
Lubricate sunscreen with at least thirty factor? Many people don’t think about that yet. To point out people to the dangers of excessive exposure to sunlight, dermatologist Annemiek Fongers, together with a colleague, came up with a new awareness campaign. Fongers works in the Wilhelmina Hospital Assen. The campaign is called ‘HPK with a buddy’.
“HPK stands for skin cancer periodic inspection,” says dermatologist Annemieke Fongers. “We would like to see that people check on spots on the skin at the start of every season, so four times a year.”
Together with other parties, the hospital made a special control card that people can use. “You can check for certain body parts on that. But on top of your head, behind your ears and between your hair, it is difficult to check yourself. You need a buddy for that: someone else who looks closely at those areas.”
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the Netherlands. Every year almost 80,000 people get the diagnosis, and about 1,000 people die from this disease, especially from the aggressive melanoma form. “1 in 5 people get skin cancer, and we are fast on our way to a situation where this is 1 in 4,” Fongers explains.
“If you check yourself more often in places and spots, you will automatically see whether that spot remains the same or has taken on another shape. That is why we argue for that periodic inspection.”
What helps to prevent skin cancer is to prevent excessive exposure to sunlight. If you do pull out, then rubbing with sunscreen is necessary. But many people don’t do that, it turns out at the start of the season. A scaffolding builder is even working in his bare bark in Assen. “No, I didn’t rub myself,” he laughs. “I think the sun is healthy. A lot of vitamin D!” A lady on the terrace is also not that far. “I know that the UV radiation is harmful, but I still don’t have a sunburn yet.”
“What people do not notice is that the sunburn of today is the skin cancer of later,” says Fongers. “If you enter the sun unprotected, the UV radiation causes a minor skin damage. If your skin gets older and the cells have shared more often, then those mistakes will be expressed.”