Despite the widely recognized stereotype that a large portion of New York residents spend the majority of their year confined to their tiny windowless offices and constricted apartments, most tend to emerge in the summer months to soak up the sun and enjoy the warm temperatures. As a result of such, a popular destination to enjoy the weather is none other than the city’s—considerably overpopulated—beaches.
However, despite even the best efforts of the most cautious New Yorker, due to the limited sun exposure we have during the large part of the rest of the year, burning seems inevitable. Thus, independent of the preemptive sunscreen application, many New Yorkers end up pretty burnt as a result of their beach excursions—especially at the start of the beach season.
In an effort to resolve, or at least to reduce, this problem, the New York City Parks Department plans to install about one hundred free sunscreen dispensers throughout city beaches this summer.
As initially reported by Gothamist, a thousand liters of SPF-30 water-resistant sunscreen will be dispensed in beaches throughout the five boroughs as part of this initiative of the Parks Department this summer. The program is mainly focused on an active attempt to combat skin cancer, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies as the most common cancer in the US. To prevent such, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also encourages that people wear SPF 15 or higher only a regular basis, particularly when they know they will be exposed to the sun extensively.
The pilot program designed by the Parks Department is sponsored by both the non-profit IMPACT Melanoma and the skin cancer prevention company Bright Guard.
Besides merely providing aid in the fight against skin cancer, New York City comptroller Scott M. Stringer, who initially proposed the program last year, harbors hope that it will also be a manner to facilitate lower-income residents having access to sunscreen. Through this, money no longer becomes as decisive of a factor in one’s risk for skin cancer. “Given that three ounces of sunscreen — just enough for one person’s day at the beach—can cost as much as $13.99, free sunscreen will help all New Yorkers keep more of their hard-earned cash for other priorities,” he declared in the program’s proposal.
Featured Image via Wikimedia.
Great
Love the idea! Hope it continues also making sure that maintenance of the sunscreen is kept up too… don’t want people walking off with them or to have people try to get sunscreen from empty containers
This is such an awesome idea!
I think its a good idea, maybe it will encourage people to use it and protect their skin from the sun.
Great initiative!
Very good move by the city government!
this makes me very happy, hope they bring this to New Jersey soon
I love this plan but workers needs to be in check to refill them
I wanna see the SPF on that free sunscreen
This is great! I’m so glad they are providing free sunscreen, all beaches should do this!
This is a great idea because many people forget about applying sunscreen and then pay for it decades later in the form of skin cancer
The fact that the New York City Parks Department is going to install one hundred free sunscreen dispensers is great and can definitely prevent skin cancer.
Such a smart move to start supplying free sunscreen and protect people from skin cancer this summer
Love that NY is providing free sunscreen, much better than getting melanoma! Hard to remember to use it when I don’t easily burn. A nice reminder.
Amazing idea! Sunscreen is so important.
Very smart decision. I just hope it will be well stocked enough that they won’t always be out of sunscreen when I visit. I wonder how much this is costing them?
This is a great idea!
Such a smart way to help fight skin cancer! Love this idea and hope to see it implemented at other places in the future!
This is awesome! I live in Boston and they should do this also. Skin cancer is developing in younger people everyday and it must be prevented.
It is a great idea that New York City is letting people know that you have to protect yourself from the sun.
What an amazing idea! People don’t take sun exposure seriously enough, it’s refreshing to see the city taking action.
I think this is a great idea! Sunscreen is a little pricey at some locations. I believe this is a perfect idea especially for those little kids and adults who may not know how harmful the sun is. Or perhaps the fact that someone may have forgotten the sunscreen at home, this is convenient and the fact that it is free is more helpful. Another reason being is that, even on windy days when it’s a little cloudy, during the beginning of the summer some people don’t realize that their is still a possibility of getting burnt. Once they get burnt they then wonder how they got a sunburn if it wasn’t too sunny. However, the UV rays still peek through somehow damaging our skin and if they could educate people on that possibility as well it would be even more beneficial to the community.