In Occitania, 300 kindergarten and primary classes are made aware of the health risks of the sun. A prevention message that is played before the age of 18 according to the World Health Organization.
To protect yourself from the dangers of the sun and the risks of developing skin cancer, the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) are clear. You still have to know them and apply them!
This is the objective of the “Living with the sun” program, deployed in schools. “It is essential to raise awareness and deliver a message of prevention to children from an early age. Because if you wait until you are 18, the risk of developing skin cancer in adulthood is already real”, insists Pierre Césarini , the delegated director of the Solar Security association, a WHO collaborating centre, which deploys this programme.
Watch out from 10 a.m.
Everything happens like a scientific investigation in about ten sessions based on experiments and observation. Children learn to spot how dangerous the sun is by observing the size of the shadow. “The shorter the shadow, the higher and more dangerous the sun,” recalls Pierre Césarini.
Students handle and expose UV-reactive paper stickers to the sun at different times of the day. The one that colors the most has been overexposed. Then, they test different types of protection for these stickers (fabric, shade from a parasol, sunscreen). Finally, they learn about the risks associated with the different pigmentations of the skin in the event of overexposure.
The program, based on an educational notebook, is carried out independently by volunteer teachers.
In Occitania, nearly 300 kindergarten and primary classes participate in it thanks to aid from the regional health agency (ARS Occitanie) of 30,000 euros per year. As a reminder, on the arrival of fine weather, the WHO recommends protecting yourself from UV rays from an index of 3, with a hat, sunglasses, under a parasol, or by wearing covering clothing, without forgetting Sun cream.
In Occitania, between March and the end of September, index 3 is reached from 10 a.m. and can reach a level of 7 to 8 during the hottest hours.