This week it was reported last year’s national skin cancer survey of 2198 adults showed nearly two thirds of the respondents had at least one bout of sunburn last summer, with about a quarter reporting a severe sunburn.
That was bad enough, but for young people aged 18 to 24, the situation was worse.
For those respondents, 87% of females and 77% of males reported sunburn, with more than half of the women (54%) and 46% of the men in the group reporting severe sunburn. (Severe sunburn is defined as pain lasting two or more days, or blistering.)
Sunburn increases the risk of developing melanoma, which can be deadly.
Researchers said such high sunburn rates revealed in the survey had not been seen since 2010.
Skin cancer is not a minor disease but, as a briefing on the survey points out, a major public health challenge here, with almost 100,000 diagnoses annually and an economic burden of about $495 million.
It will affect two in three New Zealanders at some point in their lives, making it one of the country’s most common and preventable health conditions.
Although we have known for years skin cancer is mostly linked to too much ultraviolet radiation, it seems too many people either do not know the "slip, slop, slap and wrap" SunSmart slogan, or are choosing to ignore it.
Anyone who can remember the bad old days when slathering yourself in oil and frying in the sun was the fashion because having a tan was fashionable and wrongly considered healthy, will be now only too aware of the damage that caused.
Even if they were lucky enough to escape melanoma, they are likely to have other sun damage requiring medical treatment.
But the idea tanning protects against melanoma is stubbornly persistent, with a quarter of respondents believing that.
One of the factors likely to be affecting the high sunburn rate is the nonsense which has been spouted by social media influencers about tanning.
On platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, influencers share images of their tan lines and encourage those watching to tan when the Ultraviolet Index (UVI) is dangerously high.
If the UVI is three or above your skin can be damaged and protection is required.
It beggars belief we seem to have dropped the ball on the sun safe messaging, with researchers saying the high rates of sunburn being reported seem to coincide with a significant drop in government funding for sun safety campaigns in recent years.
Although Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand is funding a Cancer Society $300,000 SunSmart campaign this financial year, aimed at 18-24 year olds and running on social media, we wonder if this will be too late for many young people who may already have been captured by the dangerous messages of the influencers.
Australia, which has similar skin cancer rates to ours, is a step ahead of us in this area.
It spent several million dollars on an "End the Trend" campaign last summer to counteract the erroneous tanning messages, including encouraging everyone to give up the suntan, real or fake, and to embrace their natural skin tone.
Some influencers joined the campaign to post on social media about moving from tanning to using sunscreen.
Australia also banned commercial sunbeds a decade ago, whereas in New Zealand, we made them illegal for under 18-year-olds.
There are fewer beds now, but their use is poorly policed. They should be banned.
As well as the tanning issue, further action is needed to address sun exposure in many workplaces, schools, sports and local government settings, although the research shows strong public support for government spending on skin cancer prevention.
When our politicians are constantly trying to find savings in health spending, it makes no sense to continually underfund preventative measures which would both save money and misery.
