A kite surfer goes airborne at Lawrencetown Beach. New research shows that skin cancer rates are highest in coastal communities where people spend a lot of time at the beach. - Eric Wynne - FileIvan Litvinov wants to convince Nova Scotians and Prince Edward Islanders that getting a tan is lame.
“You can go into a school and talk till you’re blue in the face about skin cancer and it won’t get you anywhere,” said Litvinov. They’ve held 22 focus groups through the region to come to grips with the “sunscreen paradox”: that people in the highest risk areas are more aware of skin cancer and of the importance of sunscreen and are more likely to use it, but those areas end up with more cases anyway.
“Before, people didn’t live that long. They would die younger of cardiac arrest. Trips to Mexico were too expensive for previous generations, but now they’re common.”