HANOVER, N.H (WCAX) – Experts say quality sunscreen remains one of the best ways to prevent skin cancer. And efforts are underway to get more people to put it on at Dartmouth College.
If you ask college students if they’ve applied sunscreen on a hot sunny day, you’ll get different answers.
“Especially as a ginger, I’m really light-skinned, so I always get really nervous about that and it’s just always been ingrained in me to wear sunscreen,” said Matthew Jachim-Gallagher, a Dartmouth student.
“In between classes for short periods of time, I definitively should, but never felt the need to if it’s not for a long period of time,” said student Madelyn Goebel.
It’s estimated that one in five people will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime. But the survival rates are high if caught early. Doctors say sunscreens with SPF ratings of 30 and above should be used like body armor. “Vermont and New Hampshire are among the top five states with the highest prevalence of skin cancer,” said Dr. Jamie Karch, a dermatologist who recently graduated from the Giesel School of Medicine and led the effort for Dartmouth to become a “Skin Smart” campus committed to not having tanning beds. The recognition from the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention also came with sunscreen dispensers that are being strategically placed around campus.
Karch also helped write a Vermont law that no longer requires Green Mountain students to have a prescription for sunscreen at school. “Considering that there are 9,500 cases diagnosed every day, and 1.5 million cases diagnosed every year in the country, I think that skin cancer is something that should not be overlooked,” Karch said.
If you do have a spot on your skin, here’s what to look for: Is it asymmetrical? Does it have irregular borders or multiple colors? Is it bigger than six millimeters in diameter? Is it changing or evolving?
“Definitely, if I were to go to the beach for an extended period of time, I’d want to wear sunscreen,” Goebel said.
And the new dispensers on campus are making it even more widely available.
“I think it could be more widespread. I feel like I know about it because I am very locked in on sunscreen, but a lot of people don’t,” Jachim-Gallagher said.
Similar efforts are underway in New Hampshire to lose the requirement for sunscreen prescriptions in the classroom.