Skcin attend European Parliament Skin Cancer Awareness Day

On Tuesday 5^th November 2013, Skcin had the honour of attending a Skin Cancer Awareness Day, which took place in the European Parliament in Brussels.  The Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL), the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology  (EADV) and Euromelanoma came together with Skcin and leading members of the European Parliament (MEP’s) to raise awareness of the most commonly occurring cancer in Europe.  The meeting focused in particular on the alarming and increasing burden of skin cancer in Europe for a key at risk group, outdoor workers.



The meeting highlighted the social and economic significance of skin cancer as an occupational disease and called for actinic keratosis and non-melanoma skin cancers to be classified as an occupational disease, against certain criteria, for all outdoor workers across European.  MEP’s were supportive of the call and will be addressing their colleagues across the member states to gain recognition for the disease amongst this population.  Skcin presented on the Sun Safe Workplaces accreditation scheme, which allows employers to fulfill their duty of care to employees when it comes to suns safety and the over exposure to UV, by providing a collection of free resources.




Sun Safe Workplace resources include, policy and risk assessment information and documentation, a detailed employer guide on the subject and a number of resources to educate employees on Sun Safety and the dangers of over exposure to UV and the importance of checking their skin on a regular basis.  By working through a number of steps online employers can gain their Sun Safe Workplace accreditation for implementing risk assessments, policy and employee education programs.  This information attracted a lot of interest and Skcin hope to be working more on a European level with the Sun Safe Workplaces scheme in the future.