Dr. Peter Velthuis on the Sun
Jetske has today asked me, Peter Velthuis, as guest blogger to add a piece on her blog about the sun.
There is so much being written about sunlight and the skin, that you would think that every sensible person is cautious about not having too much sun. Unfortunately every day I see that the opposite is true. The same goes for my children, the three youngest being between the ages of 15 and 17, where I see a passionate desire to achieve a good tan. They eventually get some tan after going through the red phase. But they are all blond with white skin, so they’ll never be very brown. Now I, myself, am somewhat pre-occupied with that subject. So what I do on a very sunny day is send them a text message reminding them to apply the sun cream.
Sun protection
Last year I made a field trip to Australia which involved new diagnostics and forms of treatment for skin cancer. The problem of skin cancer there is 5 times greater than in the Netherlands. The Australian government started an intensive campaign at the beginning of the 80’s to make people aware of the dangers of too much sun on the skin. And it has helped enormously: everyone participates, and children, in particular, are constantly being reminded that they must be careful in the sun. If a child goes to school without a cap, they will be sent back home to get it.
What else does sun protection include? The basic rules in Australia are:
- Never go in the sun without sun cream
- Never go in the sun without a hat on
- Always wear a t-shirt in the sun (the same applies when swimming)
That may seem a bit over the top for the Netherlands, but we also need to protect ourselves here. An appeal to everyone from me: each day before stepping outside the door apply the sun cream and re-apply it every two hours.
Peter Velthuis is the Medical Director and Dermatologist at the Velthuis Clinic. He is writing as my guest blogger.
You can also read
‘Protect Yourself from the Sun’, a blog about the minimal effect if you apply too thin a layer of sun cream and the article
‘A Self Tanner; In Moderation‘.