Nurse Teri's weekly BFA Post: Here Comes the Sun

Submitted by Teri Mills on May 14, 2005 - 7:07am

Our own National Nurse Teri Mills has a regular Blog for America post on Fridays:
http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/006331.html

Here comes the sun, but even when it's a cloudy day, be sure to take extra precaution to protect your skin. Lathering up your children's skin with suntan screen is even more important as we learned this past week. Melanoma, the deadliest of all types of skin cancer, is rising at an alarming rate in all age groups with pediatric cases more than doubling since 1982.

Health care providers remain puzzled as to the reasons for the increase citing depletion of the ozone as a possible cause. The Kyoto Protocol, the first international agreement to look at solutions to prevent a further decrease in the ozone layer, was signed by 141 countries and went into effect on February 16, 2005.

Al Gore helped with designing this protocol. Bill Clinton signed the agreement (the Senate refused to ratify). Then George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol, claiming that it is too costly.

Here are some alarming facts the President needs to know about:

1. More than a million people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with skin cancer this year.
2. More than half of all newly diagnosed cancers are skin cancers.
3. One in 5 Americans will get skin cancer in the course of a lifetime.
4. One person dies every hour from skin cancer.

May is National Skin Cancer Awareness month. Early detection will give you the best prognosis and often if the disease is caught early enough, it is 100% curable. Companies who produce skin care products are making an effort to help with this. Olay is offering a two for one skin cancer screening and lists participating doctors on their website.

Staying inside is unrealistic, so when you do venture outdoors, be prepared. Check the UV index where you live and this will help determine the length of time you are safe and what sunscreen is best to apply. Please take the time to put hats on infants and do this yourself—especially if your hair is thinning.

We must act in a responsible manner, to protect ourselves and our families, even if our President does not.

—Teri Mills, RN, MS, ANP
Democracy for Oregon

Posted by Guest Writer at 09:49 AM