I just read an interesting article regarding how early should you think about protecting your skin from the sun. Now, I have some issues with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force for their lack of recommending annual skin exams; but this time, they are recommending physicians talk to parents of young, fair-skinned children even earlier than previously recommended. Want to know why they recommend talking to the parents instead of the patients themselves? Because they’re counseling physicians to start the conversation when a child is 6 months old…
The task force recommends that doctors with fair-skinned patients aged 6 months to 24 years of age should talk with them, or their parents, about ways to protect skin from sun exposure to reduce the risk for skin cancer. This can include talking about consistent application of sun block, wearing protective clothing, and not tanning indoors. Oddly, they recommend for patients older than 24 years of age to only receive counseling on a case-by-case basis. As usual, the Task Force makes a recommendation I don’t fully agree with. As you get older, you can still prevent skin cancer if you apply sun block and not tan indoors. It’s not like you have a magic threshold where you suddenly are immune. And let’s face it, most people aren’t too concerned with the distant future even at age 24. (I know I was still thinking that I wasn’t going to live past 37 when I was 24 because that felt incredibly ancient to me…)
While I’m happy that they’re recommending telling parents – hey, you should think about protecting your kid from the sun, especially when they’re not even coherent enough to go to the bathroom on their own – I am disappointed that they specifically called out only for fair-skinned patients. Why not recommend that all parents receive that information? Skin cancer doesn’t only affect the pale. And the term “fair skinned” is so freaking nebulous. Who decides someone is fair or not? If you’re olive skinned and your doctor is super pale, is the doctor going to assume that you don’t get that information because she or he is more fair skinned than you? Honestly, would it really derail the U.S. medical system if they just told all parents with babies – hey, you shouldn’t let your kid get a boatload of UV exposure and here’s what you can do about it?
So, on one hand, I actually like that the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force made an update to their recommendation; but on the other, it still feels incomplete and to be honest, a bit discriminatory.