Parental and primary caregiver's attitudes towards sun safe hat and sunscreen use at a major national children's playground in Canberra, Australia.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The sun safety habits of children are developed throughout the childhood years under the influence of peers, parents, family members and other adult caregivers, as well as through education. This study assessed the sun safety attitudes and actual practices of parents and primary caregivers at a large public playground over a twelve-month period in 2019/2020. The desire to have an educational sun safety message at major playgrounds was also assessed. METHODS: Parents and primary caregivers at our study playground in Canberra, Australia, were offered an eight-question survey. Data analysis compared the proportion of respondents who selected each sub-question. Surveys were conducted on a minimum of three days per week for a twelve-month period, excluding the period of May to the beginning of August when the ultraviolet radiation index (UVI) is typically below three in Canberra. RESULTS: Less than half of the children at the study playground wore a sun safe hat the whole of their playtime when the UVI ≥ 3. Although 80.5% parents and primary caregivers acknowledged the importance of modelling good sun safety behaviours, most adults did not wear a sun safe hat or apply sunscreen. 93.3% of adult respondents desired some form of permanent educational message at playgrounds to encourage better sun safety. CONCLUSION: There is significant room for improvement in the sun safety practices of primary caregivers and children at our study playground. The vast majority of respondents desired a permanent sun safety message display at major playgrounds.

Fond memories of my PhD research in Professor Cris dos Remedios' laboratory.

I completed my PhD in 2013 under the supervision of Prof Cristobal G. dos Remedios, Department of Anatomy and Histology, The University of Sydney. His guidance and exemplary scientific standard in his laboratory ignited an insatiable scientific curiosity that continuously pushes me towards new knowledge through my own research.

Availability of Hats That Meet Australian Sun-safety Standards at a Major Canberra Shopping Complex.

Good sun-safety practice includes wearing sun-protective hats that must meet defined photoprotective criteria such as the 2017 Australian/New Zealand standard (AS/NZS 4399:2017). This study investigated the availability of sun-safe hats during a three-day cross-sectional survey in November 2019 by visiting every shop in a single large multi-store shopping complex in Australia. Hats were categorized according to whether the target customer was an adult or child prior to the assessment of design suitability for sun safety according to the standard. Of the 260 shops in the study shopping center, 30 (12%) sold hats. Of the 524 hats examined in the study, 69% of all commercially available hats for adults and children did not meet the standard. Of the 9% of hats that had swing tags claiming an Ultraviolet Protection Factor of 50 (UPF-50), about half were not sun safe. Further research is needed to investigate the possibility of whether sun-safety hat standards should be given to retailers of hats for display, or whether manufacturers could be required to put warning labels on all hats that do not meet sun-safety hat standards.

A review of melanin sensor devices.

Knowing how readily the skin produces melanin is invaluable in reducing photochemical and phototherapy overtreatment in dermatology and also in reducing the risk of actinic skin damage and skin cancer from excessive radiant light exposure. The commonly used Fitzpatrick skin type (FST) classification scale is often used to subjectively assess ultraviolet light sensitivity and susceptibility to sunburn following significant sunlight exposure. However, the FST scale falls short in the assessment of nonwhite skin types. Alternatively, commercially available melanin sensor devices, called melanometers, can be used to objectively quantify useful skin parameters such as the epidermal melanin concentration (EMC). This study reviews commercially available melanometers and their use in quantifying epidermal melanin concentration (EMC) and the individual maximum safe radiant exposure (IMSRE) for an individual in clinical, workplace and community settings.

Ultraviolet radiation sensors: a review.

Knowledge of when to actively modify outdoor sun protective behaviour is crucial for sun safety and should be based upon personal susceptibility to sunburn and the intensity of the ultraviolet radiation dose during outdoor exposure. To facilitate measurements of dose and exposure, non-scientific and research-grade instruments measuring different exposure parameters of solar radiation are commercially available. These devices have been marketed as weather stations, purpose-built UVI display stations, portable dosimeters, handheld solarmeters, watches, and even stickers that can be worn. According to their measurements, the public can be educated and reminded to adopt appropriate sun safety practices such as limiting midday sun exposure, seeking shade, wearing protective clothing such as a broad-brimmed hat, and regularly applying and reapplying broad-spectrum sunscreen. There are many different commercial devices and smart phone applications (apps) that allow the public to be informed about current ultraviolet radiation levels in their immediate area, but each aims to enable the public to practise good sun safety behaviour. Naturally, each device is not without its various limitations and unique advantages. This study explores the ways in which ultraviolet radiation sensors can provide an accurate and highly convenient way of practising good sun safety behaviour in various contexts of high sun exposure such as playgrounds, tourist attractions, workplaces, and swimming pools. However, the author advises caution on the use of personal meters that have not been validated for their reliability and accuracy as public health tools.

Sensitivity limits of biosensors used for the detection of metals in drinking water.

Even when present in very low concentrations, certain metal ions can have significant health impacts depending on their concentration when present in drinking water. In an effort to detect and identify trace amounts of such metals, environmental monitoring has created a demand for new and improved methods that have ever-increasing sensitivities and selectivity. This paper reviews the sensitivities of over 100 recently published biosensors using various analytical techniques such as fluorescence, voltammetry, inductively coupled plasma techniques, spectrophotometry and visual colorimetric detection that display selectivity for copper, cadmium, lead, mercury and/or aluminium in aqueous solutions.

A review of heavy metal cation binding to deoxyribonucleic acids for the creation of chemical sensors.

Various human activities lead to the pollution of ground, drinking, and wastewater with toxic metals. It is well known that metal ions preferentially bind to DNA phosphate backbones or DNA nucleobases, or both. Foreman et al. (Environ Toxicol Chem 30(8):1810-1818, 2011) reported the use of a DNA-dye based assay suitable for use as a toxicity test for potable environmental water. They compared the results of this test with the responses of live-organism bioassays. The DNA-based demonstrated that the loss of SYBR Green I fluorescence dye bound to calf thymus DNA was proportional to the toxicity of the water sample. However, this report raised questions about the mechanism that formed the basis of this quasi-quantitatively test. In this review, we identify the unique and preferred DNA-binding sites of individual metals. We show how highly sensitive and selective DNA-based sensors can be designed that contain multiple binding sites for 21 heavy metal cations that bind to DNA and change its structure, consistent with the release of the DNA-bound dye.