While France is going through an unusual “heat dome” this week for the month of May, a new survey shows that we still do not know how to protect ourselves well from the sun.
- Approximately 80,000 skin cancers are diagnosed each year in France.
- About 70% are basal cell carcinomas.
According to a new survey conducted by Pierre Fabre in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the United States, Brazil and Australia, we still do not know how to protect ourselves well from the sun, whose rays can nevertheless be very dangerous. for health.
“50 to 80% of cumulative exposure occurs during early childhood, constituting the main cause of most skin cancers. During the awareness month for screening, prevention campaigns informing about the importance of not not expose yourself to the sun between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., to apply sunscreen every two hours, or to protect yourself with specific clothing, are constantly disseminated. But are the prevention instructions well understood and respected? This is what we tried to perceive through our study conducted on a sample of more than 8,000 adults”, explains Doctor Ariadna Ortiz Brugués, member of the medical department of Laboratoires dermatologiques Avène.
Misunderstandings
First observation: the importance of photoprotection is not always well understood. For example, 45% of respondents do not know that UVB rays cause sunburn, and 27% that UVA rays penetrate deeply or accelerate skin aging. 67% of respondents are also unaware that chemical filters absorb ultraviolet rays, 21.7% mistakenly think that clouds protect from the sun, and 11.6% believe (still wrongly!) that once tanned, it there is no longer any reason to be careful.
Second observation: children are not sufficiently protected from the dangers of the sun. “Even though 64% of children are protected every time they go outside, regardless of the sun during daily activities, only 32.7% received adequate protection”, can we read in the report. “Less than one in five children (18.5%) benefited from an application every two hours on sunny days, and only 10% on cloudy days”, also write the authors of the survey. In total, 31.9% of children therefore suffer at least one sunburn during the summer.
Exposure to the hottest hours
Finally, with regard to adults, we note that exposure to the sun during the hottest hours is more frequent among young people between 18 and 34 years of age (88% of cases) than among those aged 55 and over. During intense sun exposure, only 13.1% of those surveyed said they reapply every two hours, and more than one respondent in two (59.1%) admitted to using the remaining product of the previous year when it may have expired.
“66.9% also said they felt their parents had given them little or no protection from the sun. 52.5% of parents felt they were more vigilant with their child than they were. were their parents with them”, conclude the authors of the study.
