The Davis Enterprise -
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Published on: 5/26/2004
Last Visited: 5/29/2004
Davis is becoming a more sun-conscious town, and at least some of the credit is due to the ongoing efforts of local dermatologist Ann Haas, who's been working for several years to raise awareness of the damage that the sun's powerful rays can do to young soccer players, teenage sunbathers and the like.
The story begins several years ago, when Haas - a 10-year Davis resident who works as a dermatologist with Sutter Medical Group in Sacramento - felt an increasing sense of frustration.
"Living here in Davis, a city that has a bicycle for its city emblem, and seeing the number of kids who were playing outside all summer long, and having a dermatology practice that deals heavily in the diagnosis and management of skin cancer ...I realized that there's a message (about sun safety) that we weren't getting out there," she said.
"I was seeing teenagers in my practice who'd been in tanning booths and on the beach and had damaged their skin.I realized that the message needed to reach kids sooner than that," Haas said.
"I was seeing elementary school kids on the soccer fields and at the playgrounds - and most of the playgrounds did not have shade structures.And when they're playing in the sun on asphalt, they're getting the reflection from the sun off the asphalt (as well as the sun's direct rays)."
The situation weighed on her mind.
"I think it was my dad who finally said, 'Why don't you go do something about it?' " Haas recalled.
So three years ago, Haas organized a nonprofit organization called Sun Safe City, set up the Web site www.sunsafecity.org that has links to other sites that carry sun safety gear, and started a campaign to make people - children and their parents in particular - more aware.
She models her effort on the American Cancer Society's anti-tobacco campaign, which has reduced smoking over the decades in this country.
Haas' effort paid a dividend on Monday, when she held what has become an annual event at Merryhill School, a private school in South Davis where Haas' two children attend classes.
The event shows off Merryhill's sun safety policy.Students at Merryhill wear sun hats with broad, floppy rims when they go out for recess.They eat lunch at tables that are covered by a shade structure.They know they're supposed to apply sunscreen when they're going to be playing games on the grass.
Merryhill doesn't have a pool, but Haas encourages swimmers to wear Australian-style swimwear, which covers the torso and part of the arms and legs.
Each year in the spring, Haas sends out news releases to promote the Merryhill event, and she's been pretty successful at attracting media attention.Two Sacramento television stations and a metropolitan newspaper have done stories about sun safety at Merryhill, in addition to several stories in The Enterprise.And Haas count on such publicity to advance the cause, and get other schools to adopt similar policies.
"We started at Merryhill primarily because it's a smaller school, and the (two women who've served as) principals thought it was a great idea," Haas said.
Shade structures are not entirely foolproof.Merryhill bought a shade structure from All About Play, a company in Sacramento.But a spring windstorm, which toppled trees and tore a banner off the south wall of Mondavi Center, nearly wrecked Merryhill's shade structure.
"It sort of folded over," Haas said.
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"Sun safety is particularly important when the sun is at its most intense, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.," Haas said.She encourages adults to play tennis or golf in the early morning or late afternoon, if possible.
"It's all part of a behavioral change," and getting people to adopt healthy habits about sun exposure at an early age," she said.
Many teenagers want a "tanned look," but Haas reminds them that there can be a downside in terms of their personal appearance.
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But in reality, "we are seeing skin cancer in people as young as their 20s," Haas said.
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