Australians get SunSense
October 11, 2012
SUNSENSE has this week
unleashed its SunSense UV
Photobus on the Australian public
for the second year running, with
the aim of making Aussies face up
to the reality of sun damage.
The bus will be hitting up 21
metro and regional locations across
NSW, Qld, Vic, SA and WA, between
09 October and 05 December,
offering Aussies the chance to have
their photo taken by a UV camera
to get a glimpse of the damage that
the sun has wreaked underneath
the surface of their skin.
Those that have their photo taken
will be given a SunSense UV
percentile score out of 100.
Along with the score, visitors to
the bus will also be given a healthy
dose of sun protection advise.
It is hoped by showing the
damage that is invisible to the
naked eye, Aussies will be given a
sun protection wake up call and will
be encouraged to practice good
year round sun protection habits.
Speaking at an event to announce
the return of the bus, Sunsensibility
ambassador Carrie Bickmore said
“It seems that the sun protection
message isn’t sinking in”.
“To think that 1,200 Australians
are dying every year from a cancer
that we can prevent is just mind
blowing,” she said.
The Photobus, according to
Bickmore, will help Australians take
more responsibility for their skin.
Meanwhile, also speaking at the
event Dr Kerryn Greive, Head of
Research and Development at Ego
Pharmaceuticals, highlighted the
importance of the sun protective
message of the bus by saying that
recent studies are finding that
whilst Aussies are doing an “okay
job with sun protection, there’s still
a lot of work to do”.
To illustrate her point Grieve cited
a recent Weekend Study in which
researchers randomly selected a
group of Australians and surveyed
them to find out what happened to
their skin over the weekend.
According to the results, in that
weekend 18% of adults, 25% of teens,
and 8% of children got sunburnt.
“One of the really concerning things
is that sun protection amongst
teens is actually declining,” she said.
“That’s not because they don’t know
they should protect their skin, it’s
because they don’t care,” she added.
In terms of the SunSense bus,
Greive said it is important as it
gives Australians an immediate
understanding of the damage that
the sun is wreaking on their skin.
“One of the biggest issues we
have in communicating sun
protection issues is the lag time
between when they get sunburnt
and when the skin cancer actually
develops later on,” she said.
“Some of the dominant mindsets
we are facing are ‘it won’t happen
to me’ and ‘skin cancer belongs to
somebody else’, but we know that
2 in 3 Australians gets skin cancer
by the time they’re 70 so this is
really something that could happen
to anybody,” she added.
For info on where the bus will be
stopping visit SunSense at -
www.sunsense.com.au.
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