CHILDREN

Children Are Particularly at Risk

Sun protection for children is particularly important due to a very thin protective horny layer and insufficient pigment production. Generally, the earlier and more often the skin is sunburned, the higher is the risk of skin cancer development later in life. A number of water resistant and perfume-free sun protection products have been developed for special use in infants and young children. It is highly recommended that children wear a sun protective head at all times.

The first certificated child day care center

SunPass – Healthy Sun Fun For Kids

SunPass is a pilot project aiming at the certification of child day care centers for their efforts in children’s sun protection activities. The project has been designed and initiated by the European Skin Cancer Foundation and supported by partners. 

The main objectives of the SunPass project are to reduce the UV exposition in children, to raise the awareness of caregivers and parents,and to reduce skin cancer incidence in the long term. For this purpose, a standard procedure and appropriate intervention measures have been devised and implemented in a cooperative child day care center. The sun protection activities practiced within the child day care center were assessed in summer 2008, prior to the introduction of the intervention. These measures were detected again one year later. If children’s sun protection has improved, the day care center received the SunPass certification. 

Since the successful launch in February 2009 in Germany, 55 different day care centers are certificated in 2010. In 2012 several centers will follow. For the future is planned to implement the project in Europe. Furthermore, it is intended to involve health insurances and governmental institutions in the project to enable also less well-off centers to participate in the intervention program.

COMPONENTS OF INTERVENTION

Staff Parents Children
Introduction of a SunPass Policy Sunscreen samples Posters with comics about sun adventures of the SunPass mascot, the turtle Paulchen
Workshop on relevant issues, like the sun, its dangers and sun protection practices Informative leaflet about the danger of sun exposition Puppet of Paulchen to demonstrate his adventures more lively
  Workshop at a parents conference of the day care center