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Sunscreen can get quite expensive.
But why should safety in the sun be confined to those with the extra cash?
That was the thinking behind a new Northwell Health initiative, through which the hospital system is sponsoring 150 free sunscreen dispensers across Long Island and New York City.
Fifty of those have been installed at Islip and Babylon town parks through a partnership with Northwell’s Southside Hospital in Bay Shore. The free SPF 30 broad spectrum sunscreen will be stocked for all Long Islanders to use through Labor Day weekend.
The Northwell Health Cancer Institute is leading the initiative.
“Sunscreen is a vital part of keeping our skin safe and preventing skin cancer,” said Dr. Richard Barakat, the Cancer Institute’s director and physician-in-chief. “It is rewarding to know that with these additional opportunities to apply sunscreen hopefully fewer people will be diagnosed with skin cancer.”
Just look for the orange dispensers at most big parks and beaches.
Skin cancers are the most common form of cancer in the U.S. More than 80,000 new cases of melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer, were reported in the United States to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 (the most recent year available). Nearly 9,000 people died of the disease that year.
That’s all according to a Northwell Health announcement.
Photo: Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter; Babylon Town Councilman Terence McSweeney; Donna Moravick, Executive Director Southside Hospital; Lenny Nartowicz, Southside Hospital; Islip Town Councilman John Cochrane; Tom Owens, Commissioner, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, Islip and Celeste Kusmierski, Commissioner, Babylon Town Parks, unveiled one of the new dispensaries at West Islip Beach in West Islip. (Credit: Town of Islip)
