The rate of sunburn among people in Victoria is still too high, the Cancer Council says, with more than half a million people getting burnt each weekend.
The council surveyed more than 1,200 people about their attitudes to tanning and sun protection, with 32 per cent saying they liked to get a tan.
It found more than half a million Victorians were still getting sunburnt on a typical summer weekend, while 44 per cent said they believed tanned people looked healthier.
The council’s Victorian chief executive, Todd Harper, said people’s attitudes were changing.
“About a third fewer people think that a tan looks healthier,” he said.
“The fact that we have about 600,000 people who are likely to be sunburnt this weekend reminds us that we have more work to do.
“We need to be consistently reinforcing the messages about how to be safe in the sun and protect from melanoma.
“We know that people don’t set out to burn deliberately, but sometimes we need to plan more effectively and think about what we can do to protect ourselves from the harms of summer sun.”
Mr Harper said it could take as little as 11 minutes to get sunburnt in summer in Victoria.
The Cancer Council has embarked on a new advertising campaign to remind people about sun protection.
More than 2,300 people were diagnosed with melanoma in Victoria in 2013, and 374 people died of the disease.
Melanoma diagnosis a ‘frightening experience’
Melbourne father Andrew Holt was one of those diagnosed after a regular skin check.
“It’s quite a scary and frightening experience,” he said.
Mr Holt said his attitude to the sun had changed.
“Before that I would never try to deliberately get a tan, but I was certainly very careless in the sun,” he said.
“Since that diagnoses I’ve become quite a nuisance to my friends and family to ensure that they’re always protected.”
Premier Daniel Andrews’s wife, Catherine Andrews, is a SunSmart ambassador.
Her brother, Chris, had a melanoma removed when he was in his early 40s.
She said she noticed a dark spot on his arm when they were at the beach.
“I nagged him for a few months before he went and got it checked out,” she said.
“The spot on his arm wasn’t the problem, during his check-up they did discover a mark at the back of his knee that turned out to be a melanoma.
“Good timing, surgery and great care may well have saved his life.”
Victoria’s Health Minister, Jill Hennessy, said the health department was enforcing a ban on commercial solariums in the state, by monitoring websites and social media and removing advertisements for private tanning.
“Solaria are cancer-causing machines, we’ve banned them and we are very serious about enforcing that ban,” she said.