Dr Bronwen McNoe: Public Health Communication Centre Lead Author warns against skin cancer risks

Experts say policy changes are needed to cut New Zealand's skin cancer rates. 

A new Public Health Communication Centre report calls for more mandatory shade, a ban on commercial sunbeds and mandatory product standards for sunglasses and clothing. 

Lead Author Dr Bronwen McNoe says 500 people a year die of skin cancer and around 100-thousand people are diagnosed. 

She says a survey shows kiwis are on board with the measures. 
 
McNoe says between 80 and 90 percent of people agreed for the need for policy changes and investment. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some concern in the medical field this morning. It shows
we don't invest in skin cancer the way we used to.
Investments fall into three hundred thousand dollars a year. Is
that a big drop?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Decade ago we used to spend one point two million.
We still got over one hundred thousand new cases a year.
It's our most common cancer, of course. Doctor Bronwin Macino
is a senior research fellow at O Tigo University and
is with us bron Win Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
May do we still need to be researching this? Do
we have? We not got to a point where we
know a lot and the real problem is people spending
too much time in the sun.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Absolutely, we do know that people spend too much time
in the sun, and we know what causes skin cancer
and we know how to prevent it. We just don't
necessarily know enough about how getting to people to adopt
those behaviors and how to get policies and corporators in
the various settings where people are exposed to high levels

(00:50):
of UV. And so that's where the research really lies now.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
And so when you say so, what sort of research
would you do to do that? I mean, at the
end of the day. I refuse to believe that we
don't know. If you asked one hundred people, do you
think that spending a lot of time in the sun
could lead to some sort of problem?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
I can tell you we know that. People know that.
Eighty six percent of New Zealanders know that. We know that,
but knowing that it's not enough cause people to change
their behavior or we also know that. So that's why
we're much more focused on trying to make the environment
that people are spending time and about much more healthy.
So like, for example, providing shade and outdoor spaces that

(01:29):
people can adopt some protection behaviors easily and affordably.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Do you do that thro policy generationally? I think are
we getting there? I mean, if I remember what we
did at school versus what they do at school now,
it's a completely different world. Presumably that works through adventures.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
So certainly in primary schools, I think we've improved a lot.
But having just done a national representative survey in New
Zealanders around sunburn, unfortunately our young people are being sunburned
a really high So about sixty four percent of New
Zealanders last year reported they were sunburn For young people

(02:06):
between eighteen and twenty four that was close well over
eighty percent. So the message is not getting through to
that population. So they're okay in the young age group largely,
but it falls off as instead of moved through the
teams and young adults.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
So you must have been to the beach like I
do in summer, and you see the two groups of people,
don't you. You see the people with the hats and
the shades and all that sort of suff and then
you see the people just lying out and say and
you know they're not changing because they're having a good time.
They love being brown and it is what it is, Yes,
and it.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Is definitely difficult to shift that culture and that is
challenging but something that we're.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Working on, all right, Roman, appreciate it. Roman mcino, Senior Research,
Pellow A Tiger University. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
listen live to news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.