Bill seeks to let students, campers use sunscreen

BOSTON — In public schools and summer camps across Massachusetts, students cannot use sunscreen without a doctor’s note.

“I’ve personally had to look at a student in the eyes and refuse them sunscreen on field day because they did not have a permission slip and doctor’s orders,” Katie Labadia, a mother of four from Scituate, told the Joint Committee on Education on Monday.

Labadia said “it was no quick task” to get physician notes for each of her four children to be allowed to bring sunscreen to school and apply it themselves.

“First, my pediatrician had to write, not email, a prescription for sunscreen, including the brand and ingredients. Then my children had to demonstrate in front of the school nurse how to carry and use sunscreen on themselves. And finally, that satisfied the current statewide protocol around applying sunscreen that took multiple weeks to schedule and complete,” she said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies sunscreen as an over-the-counter drug, and therefore so do almost all schools. Similarly to how students need to go to the nurse’s office if they want ibuprofen, they also cannot bring their own bottle of sunscreen to school without a doctor’s permission, and even then must visit the nurse to use it.

This was the case across the country until states individually began changing their laws. Now, 29 states have passed laws to explicitly allow students to carry and apply their own sun protectant, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Utah and Washington.

The committee here heard testimony Monday on legislation (S 334 / H 619 / H 600) that would eliminate the burdensome restrictions on students and campers using sunscreen.

The movement has been led by parents and dermatologists.

“Just one blistering sunburn in childhood will double your risk of melanoma in the future, and five regular sunburns will double your risk of melanoma,” said Dr. Abigail Waldman, a skin cancer surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who testified in support of the bill on behalf of the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery Association.

She continued, “Chronic sun exposure, UV exposure, tanning all also increase your risk of both non-melanoma and melanoma skin cancers in the future. So I think most of us would not send our kids out today without proper UV protection.”

Waldman said that the ultraviolet radiation (UV) index in May and June, when kids are still at school and going outside for recess, is as high on average as it was Monday.

The World Health Organization’s UV index high for Monday, July 21, was 8 on a scale of 11+, which falls into the “very high” category and indicates a very high risk of harm from unprotected sun exposure.

Deb Girard, executive director of Impact Melanoma, called the bill “common sense.”

“We’re not talking about a high risk drug,” she said, adding that the bill allows “for reasonable guidelines, such as parental permission and non-aerosol forms only” of sunscreen.

“Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States and much of the damage begins in childhood. Let’s give our kids the tools they need to stay healthy,” she said.

The legislation has been filed since at least 2017, with various sponsors in the House and Sen. Julian Cyr of Provincetown as its lead champion in the Senate.

The Senate version of bill has been consistently sent to dead-end study orders, without ever receiving a favorable report from the Education Committee.

Asked why the bill hasn’t been able to get momentum on Beacon Hill, Cyr replied that he hopes for traction this session.

“I’m walking outside right now, and particularly in warmer months, I always wear SPF, particularly on my face, as most people should,” Cyr told the News Service in a phone call.

“We know how important it is for young people and all walks of life to get outside and spend time in nature and recess,” he said. “So sunscreen application just seems like a basic health and safety measure that should be available to our students, so that’s why this is a common sense bill, and something I’m hoping we’ll finally get a little traction on.”

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