Students would only need permission from their parents to apply sunscreen while in school..
Annapolis, Md (KM). Most people don’t give it a second thought when they apply sunscreen to protect themselves from the harmful UV rays of the sun. But it’s a different story when it comes to the use of sunscreen by students in Maryland’s school districts.
Frederick County Delegate Karen Lewis Young has introduced a bill that says students only need permission from their parents before allowing them to apply sunscreen while in school. “I don’t want anything to come in the way of a child being able to apply sunscreen because we know UV radiation causes 65% of all skin cancers,” she says.
Delegate Young says she did some research on each school system’s policies before coming up with her legislation. “And while I found that Frederick County certainly had a very flexible policy about apply sunscreen, that was not the case for other jurisdictions in the rest of Maryland,”: she says. “The research led me to discover that there are actually four counties in Maryland that require a doctor’s note or prescription for a child to apply sunscreen.”
In addition, Delegate Young says her bill would let the local school district decide who helps apply the sunscreen to student when that becomes necessary. It could be the “school nurse, the teacher. I know some counties are very reluctant to have volunteers assist in the application, and I certainly understand that. And I want that decision to be controlled locally,” she says.
While it’s difficult to determine whether this legislation will pass the General Assembly, Young says it has a lot of support. “I know the chair of the Health and Government Operations Committee likes this bill a lot. And Med-Chi, which is the professional association of medical professionals, likes this,”: says Young.
By Kevin McManus