In order to counteract the increasing number of skin cancer cases, the Netherlands is relying on education – and free sunscreen. Old disinfectant dispensers from Corona times should make it easier for people to apply cream more often.
They are almost everywhere on the Dutch North Sea coast. On the beaches in Domburg, Zoutelande and Egmond: the dosing dispensers left over from Corona times. Now they’re filled with sunscreen instead of disinfectant spray. Bathers can help themselves free of charge and thus protect themselves from sunburn.
This is extremely important, says dermatologist Karen van Poppelen. Because the number of skin cancer cases in the Netherlands has more than doubled in the past ten years, according to the doctor: “Approximately one in five Dutch people will develop skin cancer in the course of their lives. And the most common cause of this is sunburn. It’s good to protect yourself against it best way to prevent skin cancer.”
Elementary schools also get cream dispensers
Van Poppelen works at the VieCurie hospital in Venlo, near the border. The clinic, in cooperation with a health insurance company, has just equipped all primary schools in the region with sunscreen dispensers. A total of almost 120 institutions, including primary school “De Groenling” in Panningen. Rector Judith Überbach is pleased that the children are being offered this opportunity: “The cream was not applied sufficiently beforehand,” says Überbach. “That’s why it’s a very good action to make the children aware that they have to rub themselves in.”
In order to draw attention to the dangers of possible cancer, all children also received a small learning package with important information on the subject. And the message seems to have got through to the school children:
My mother always says: lubricate yourself before you go. But I don’t do it that often myself.
You can get sick from sunburn when you’re older.
It’s important because burning isn’t pretty, but it can also give you skin cancer. And if you discover that too late, there’s nothing you can do about it.
The sunscreen dispensers could already be seen here and there a few times last summer. They can now be found in several hundred places across the country: in urban parks, on squares, in pedestrian zones or at music festivals.
Sunscreen is now free in the Netherlands, but not for free.