Blase attitude to sun may prove fatal

Northland's sun-loving outdoor lifestyle is contributing to the region's high skin cancer rates, a Northland cancer professional warns.

Cancer Society Northland manager Margaret Curry said too many Northland residents were being diagnosed with melanoma, which in 2008 killed 13 people from the region.

"It's our lifestyle - we're just surrounded by beaches and spend too much time exposed to the sun."

Ms Curry said the Sunsmart school programme was focused on raising awareness in young people, but this often proved difficult as many adults did not exercise correct sun safety.

"Kids are actually quite good, but then we tend to lose them when they're teenagers and young adults as they want to get tans ... then we get them back again when they become parents," she said.

"It's really hard though because whilst many parents do things to make sure their kids don't burn, they don't necessarily exercise the same practices themselves."

Ms Curry said it was important for people to follow the "slip, slop, slap and wrap" Sunsmart message and stay out of the sun whenever possible.

Melanoma Foundation of New Zealand interim chief executive Kylie Williams said too many New Zealander's had the wrong attitude.

"New Zealand has the highest rates of melanoma in the world and we have the most blase attitude when it comes to sun protection - especially in men and teenagers."

An independent survey revealing fewer than one in 10 Kiwi men wore sunscreen was bitterly disappointing for the organisation.

Melanoma kills about 300 Kiwis every year, Mrs Williams said.

In men aged 25 to 44 it is the most common cancer.

Between 1998 and 2008, the number of reported melanoma cases rose by 12 per cent for males and 16 per cent for females, according to the Melanoma Foundation.

"The worst thing you can do is let your children get burnt. People have got to be vigilant about it. We get people who are diagnosed with melanoma in their 50s, but the damage had been done decades earlier," Mrs Williams said.