Sun danger falls on deaf ears

MEN are 50 per cent more likely than women to be sunburnt and young Australians are the most careless of all, says research.

MEN are 50 per cent more likely than women to be sunburnt and young Australians are the most careless of all, says research that questions whether 50 years of public education has sunk in.

Queensland scientists found that one in eight men and one in 12 women admitted they had experienced weekend sunburn in surveys conducted during the summers of 2009 and 2010.

Young adults aged 18 to 24 were seven times more likely to burn than people over the retirement age, putting them at higher risk of skin cancer.

People aged 35 to 44 were five times more likely to suffer a sunburn than the plus-65s, says the study, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The team from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Queensland Health's Population Epidemiology Unit said the sun-safety message must be renewed.

Despite half a century of awareness campaigning in the state that had Australia's worst skin cancer record, in a nation with the world's highest prevalence of deadly diseases such as melanoma, sun protection remained "far from optimal", they said.