Ireland faces skin cancer epidemic - High price to pay for fun in the sun

After a cold and dreary winter that seemed to go on forever, the arrival of what appears to be summer will, hopefully, allow the young and old alike to enjoy the delights of the outdoors.

Temperatures today and tomorrow are forecast to rise to 22 degrees but, given the vagaries of our weather, rainclouds are never far around the corner and it may be tempting to soak up as much sun as possible and bask in a dose of vitamin D.

That, however, could be a serious mistake. The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has issued a skin cancer alert, warning of the dangers of unprotected exposure to the sun.

During the long months of winter, some desperate people took to using sunbeds and that could be an even worse mistake as they are known to be a major contributor to melanoma, a type of skin cancer that can prove fatal.

According to the ICS, Ireland is facing a skin cancer epidemic over the next few decades and needs to take urgent steps now to ensure we bring down our skin cancer rates, as Australia has done.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Ireland with more than 11,000 new cases diagnosed in 2015 alone.

Unless counter-measures are taken, skin cancer cases are set to rise by almost two thirds by 2040 to nearly 19,000 cases a year.

Last July, the Government published its National Cancer Strategy 2017-2026 with the aim of meeting the needs of cancer patients in Ireland for the next decade.

Part of the thrust of the strategy involves developing a national skin cancer prevention plan and, according to Donal Buggy, head of services and advocacy at the ICS, the development of such a plan is essential to reducing skin cancer rates.

The plan was marked as a priority by the Government in 2017 yet, almost a year on it has not even been published, let alone implemented.

At a seminar held in Dublin this week, one of the world’s leading experts on skin cancer said urgent steps needed to be taken here to prevent an epidemic.

Craig Sinclair, director of the World Health Organisation’s Collaborative Centre for UV Radiation, also called on the Irish Government to ban sunbeds, saying they have “absolutely no positive benefits” and are a major contributor

to melanoma. Sunbeds were banned in Australia in 2014, helping to further reduce skin cancer rates there.

He said: “Skin cancer is one of the most preventable cancers. In Australia, we started innovative public awareness campaigns 30 years ago and we are now seeing the results of these with a downward trend in melanoma cases in younger age groups.”

Prevention is not just better than cure, it is far easier to achieve.

Ireland blazed a trail in 2004 by banning smoking in the workplace, proving that prevention is not just better than cure but easier to achieve and more cost effective.

We need to do so again by putting in place a well resourced plan to tackle skin cancer. If we don’t, we will continue to count the human and financial cost for decades to come.