Assignment #1 – Sun Safety Activities at Toronto’s Public Health Unit

Kirsten Aitken

7546088

ENVR72020

Ken Diplock

February 8th, 2019

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City of Toronto Public Health Unit – Sun Safety Activities

The Healthy Environments and Climate Change Guideline created by the

Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MHLTC) addresses a number of concerns to

human health that may be affected by climate change. One major concern is the

increased occurrence of extreme heat, as well as exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation.

In the effort to decrease chances of health risks in the community due to these

concerns, the City of Toronto has created a resource for teaching sun safety to children

from the ages of Preschool up to Grade 6. The purpose of this online resource is to be

used to educate the importance of being “Sun Safe” from a young age. The number of

activities available are free to access, and are created to be fun, interactive and easy for

children to understand.

Determinants of Health Targeted

Toronto’s Sun Safety Activities target two determinants of health: education and

childhood experiences (Government of Canada, 2018). With this free resource, Toronto

is providing easy access to materials for any parent, school, camp, afterschool or

summer program to use to educate the importance of sun safety. By giving children an

easy, interactive experience, it teaches and encourages them to always look for ways to

protect themselves and others from solar ultraviolet radiation, while still encouraging

them to play outside. These activities may lead to significantly decrease their chances

of experiencing the health risks associated with sun exposure. These risks include

extreme heat illness, skin and eye damage, weakened immune system, increased

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infections, and skin cancer, which has been found to be the most common and

preventable form of cancer (Government of Canada, 2018).

Improvement on Population Health

These activities target the most sensitive population, as high levels of sun

exposure starting at a young age can lead to a number of health risks as described

above. By providing this easy access, caretakers and educators can use the material to

teach from a very young age that it is important to play outside, but it is equally as

important to know how to protect themselves while playing. Teaching children sun

safety should become just as important as it is to teach them to read. These easy

activities can allow that to happen. At the same time, those who are implementing these

activities within child education and programs are getting a good reminder of how to

protect themselves and others from harm due to excessive sun exposure.

Key Components

The key components to this program includes free access to teaching resources

that are creatively designed interactive activities for a targeted age group, that give clear

instructions that highlight the goal, time needed, what to do, and different variations of

the activity. In order to access this program, an individual must have access to the

internet and search “Sun Safety Activities” into the City of Toronto’s web page. This

resource is found among the city’s Health Programs & Advice page.

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Success of Program

At this moment in time, there is no clear measurement of the success of the

program available. However, those who implement these activities into child

programming may be able to see first hand how these teaching activities make a

difference to how a child plays in the sun. Some questions to ask those who use the

activities to determine the success would be, “Do the children apply sunscreen before

they go outside to play?”; “Do the children remind each other to apply sunscreen and

seek spaces with shade when they go outside to play?”; and “Do you see a difference in

how the children address sun safety? If so, what do you notice?”. Success of the

program may also be determined by how many children are taken to clinics and

emergency rooms for heat exposure related illness during the summer months.

Provincial Adoption of Program

This free resource should be used across all Public Health Units to encourage

child educators and caretakers to implement these activities during the summer

seasons. When accessing the resource online, credit is given to the creator of the

activity. Some have been adapted and/or sourced from the California Department of

Public Health, as well as those created by the City of Toronto. With permission, this

resource could be easily shared throughout the 35 Public Health Units across Ontario to

aid in the effort to decrease health risks for children that may increase due to climate

change.

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Potential Barriers from Provincial Implementation

Potential barriers for implementing these free activities could be a lack of

permission from the City of Toronto to use their resource, or an uncertainty of how to

present these activities. For example, a Public Health Unit may not have the resources

to allow for easy online access to the public, or the ability to create a document that

would be available for the public to access in hard copy.

Strategies

To address these possible barriers, communication with Toronto’s Health Unit to

express the desire to use their content, to gain trust and permission to cite their work on

any of Ontario’s Public Health Unit’s websites would be the first step. Once permission

is given, the ability to allow access to the public must be addressed. If a unit has a

concern or lack of resources to provide the activities online, or by hard copy, the help of

Toronto’s Health Unit, as well as other surrounding units to address this barrier would

be key. In the hope that Public Health Units desire to aid one another in creating

healthier communities across Ontario, these are strategies that can easily address

these possible barriers.

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 References

City of Toronto. (n.d.). Sun Safety Activities. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from

https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/health-programs-

advice/sun-safety-activities/

Government of Canada. (2018, September 25). Social determinants of health and

health inequalities. Retrieved January 29, 2019 from

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/population-

health/what-determines-health.html

Government of Canada. (2018, September 9). Sun safety. Retrieved January 29, 2019,

from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/sun-safety.html

Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. (2018, January 1). Population and

Public Health Division: Healthy Environments and Climate Change Guideline,

2018 [ISBN 978-1-4868-0804-5]. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from

http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/oph_standards/docs/pr

otocols_guidelines/Healthy_Environments_and_Climate_Change_Guideline_201

8_en.pdf