A Sample Public Policy for Skin Cancer Prevention

Make a difference in your community — become an advocate for sun safety and skin cancer awareness. By encouraging your local government to adopt a skin cancer prevention policy, you can help neighbors, friends, and colleagues protect themselves from this common, yet very preventable cancer. A skin cancer prevention policy will allow your community to launch prevention initiatives such as building shade structures and planting trees in parks, and creating public awareness campaigns. Propose a skin cancer prevention policy to your elected representatives, attend public meetings, or, if procedures allow, make the proposal yourself or with a concerned group of citizens.

The following sample policy can be used as is or modified to suit local needs:

One in five Americans will develop skin cancer over the cost of a lifetime.[1] It is the most common cancer in the US, with than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people diagnosed annually.[2] Skin cancer is responsible for more than 11,000 deaths in the U.S. every year;[3] furthermore, it accounts for millions of dollars in health care costs — the treatment of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, runs to an average of $28,320 per patient,[4] while the estimated annual cost of nonmelanoma skin cancer care is $650 million in the U.S. This governing body will, therefore, consider the implications for skin cancer prevention in the development of future policies and plans and will incorporate appropriate short- and long-term strategies.

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