Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
“MUM, WHAT’S IT like to be really, properly sunburnt?” asked my kids as we all melted in the shade of the recent heatwave. Their question stopped me in my tracks, because when I was a child, sunburn was a regular occurrence.
Cast your mind back to your own childhood summers. I’m willing to bet you got the skin burned off yourself more than once.
Being really honest, it probably happened every summer, and unless you were on your holidays, the likelihood of your parents religiously slapping sun cream on either themselves or you was rare.
As a teenager, I can remember the many occasions where I stupidly sat out in the sun in the back garden without a drop of sun cream on and getting absolutely destroyed because I thought “this is Ireland, sure there’s no heat in that sun, why would I need to put on sun cream?”
If I did put it on, it was probably the lowest factor I could find or a sweet-smelling tanning oil from Hawaii that only made my skin sizzle even more. I remember laughing and comparing notes with friends over our peeling skin, slapping on aloe vera to try and ease the pain and the literal hum of my sizzled skin you could fry an egg on.
Fast-forward a few years and thanks to the increase in education and awareness around sunburn, the dangers of UV rays and skin cancer, things are different. Sun cream is a daily necessity for children in the summer. Schools, crèches and summer camps are all constantly reinforcing the message that you must never forget to put on adequate sunscreen on your young children.
That doesn’t mean it’s easy though. In fact, applying sun cream to toddlers is almost an Olympic sport. I’m yet to meet a parent of a smallie who hasn’t pulled a muscle or nearly knocked themselves out while trying to chase or wrestle their child’s slippery little arms, simply to cover them in enough factor 50+ to sink a ship.
When mine were toddlers, I reckon that my neighbours assumed I was pouring acid on their skin every summer morning, when in fact I was just rubbing in sun cream and asking them not to forget to wear their sun hat.
Unlike the past, when sunburn was all a bit of a joke, with a sort of “sure you’ll be grand,” attitude, today there is proper guilt and genuine worry if your young child gets sunburnt more than once.
Thankfully, childhood skin cancer cases in Ireland remain rare, but we know that a child’s skin is more sensitive to UV rays from the sun, and “if your child is badly sunburnt more than three times before the age of 20, they more than double their risk of skin cancer as an adult,” says the HSE.
Like most parents today, with the rising summer temperatures we’re consistently getting here and across Europe, I could take out shares in factor 50+ and have enough kids’ sun hats and rash vests to see me out. But even with my best efforts, I can remember both my kids having red necks or noses once or twice when they were toddlers.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying, and while neither was a bad incident of sunburn, I like lots of parents got caught out by not reapplying soon enough or the water and sand washing it off. Excuses aside, you do kind of feel as though you should just report yourself to Tusla for letting them get burned in this day and age of so much education and the abundance of SPF you can pick up everywhere from a pharmacy to the middle aisle.
Neither of them seemed to remember the sunburn, though, which was why they were so curious about what it was like. When I described the memories to them of having hot, bright red skin, the weird fun of peeling it, the pain of someone slapping your sunburnt back by mistake or even a piece of clothing rubbing on a burned shoulder, they both winced and asked why I would let myself get burned in the first place.
Why indeed.
You’d think these days sunscreen is a no-brainer. However, despite all the years of research-based evidence around the danger of the sun’s UV rays and skin cancer, there has been a recent rise in sunscreen misinformation spreading through online platforms like TikTok, where the hashtag #Antisuncream has gone viral.
A recent study by researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada found that while most videos on the platform promote sunscreen use, the ones that go viral and get the most engagement are the ones that spread dangerous misinformation.
The study published in the journal PLOS Digital Health looked at 1,000 videos on the platform. They found the misinformation ranged from “sunburns aren’t dangerous” to claims that sunscreen is “toxic” due to the presence of chemicals and that it could do anything from “taint breastmilk,” “cook” the skin or even “cause cancer.”
Dangerous claims like these can very quickly undo the years of positive work done to keep young people educated about the sun’s harmful rays. Doctors and dermatologists globally, and at home, are at pains to stress that claims, such as those found in the online videos, are false, misleading and dangerous.
“The idea that the sun doesn’t cause skin cancer is just ludicrous,” the HSE’s clinical lead for dermatology Professor Anne Marie Tobin told Newstalk Breakfast last year when discussing the rise of online misinformation.
“It’s the most preventable type of cancer we have. And the one thing that’s involved is UV radiation.”
The Journal has itself debunked false claims around sun cream being linked to an increase in cancer or containing toxins on several occasions.
“The proper use of sunscreen, combined with other sun-protection measures, reduces the risk of skin cancer. This has been clearly demonstrated in studies, and we can see the benefits reflected in the excellent public health outcomes achieved in Australia,” Dr Ivan Litvinov, Associate Professor at McGill University’s Department of Medicine, told The Journal.
The HSE recommends the use of sunscreen to protect against harmful radiation from the sun, noting that it should be reapplied every two hours (or sooner if you are sweating).
Despite the overall positive turnaround in our attitudes to suncream use, skin cancer remains the most common type of cancer in Ireland, with more than 11,000 people diagnosed each year.
It’s far too easy to get complacent, and with the influence platforms like TikTok have on us all, it’s more important than ever to call out misinformation like this where we see it, so we continue to have a generation of young children who don’t know what it’s like to be badly sunburnt every summer.
Niamh O’Reilly is a freelance journalist and parenting columnist for TheJournal.ie.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say