Netherlands to provide free sun cream to tackle record skin cancer levels

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Citizens of the Netherlands are to be offered free sun protection this summer in an effort to tackle record levels of skin cancer in the country.

Sun cream dispensers will be made available this summer in schools and universities, at festivals, parks, sports venues and open public spaces across the country, according to the government.

It said it wanted to enable everyone to have access to sun protection and not be inconvenienced by factors such as cost or inconvenience.

In a public health drive thought to be similar in scale only to – and in part inspired by – Australia’s decades long slip, slop, slap campaign, which encourages people to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat, Dutch authorities hope the campaign will turn the act of applying sun cream into an unquestioned habit.

The campaign was rolled out at the weekend at a festival in the city of Breda, according to the public broadcaster NOS.

Venlo-Venray hospital, close to the German border, is reported to be working with state health insurers to fund sun cream provision across several municipalities in 120 primary schools.

A clinic spokesperson said one of its skin doctors had come up with the idea of converting dispensers set up to provide hand disinfectant during the pandemic to hold sun cream, NOS reported.

Medical authorities have reported a record rise in skin cancer cases in the past few years. Sun cream is proven to be the best protection against the disease, and children should get used to applying it from an early age so that it becomes as ritualised as teeth brushing, a councillor from a North Sea bathing resort said.

Jacco Knape from the seaside town of Katwijk said: “It’s costing a bit of money but we hold the health of the people in high regard, adding: “We regularly see people enjoying the sun but neglecting to protect themselves and owing to the fact that Katwijk gets above the average amount of sun, this is not good.”

Across Europe, skin cancer rates have been going up over the last two decades. In neighbouring Germany, according to the Federal Office of Statistics, in 2021 the number of deaths from skin cancer rose 55% from 2001.

Considerable healthcare savings could be made through a reduction in skin cancer, experts have said.

Unseasonably high temperatures were experienced across swathes of the centre of Europe at the weekend, and are expected to continue over the coming weeks.

Poland, France and Germany are experiencing some of the highest temperatures, while Nordic and Mediterranean countries are by contrast cooler than normal for this time of year.