CDC Activities to Promote Skin Cancer Prevention and Education

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• Previous Activities
• Current Activities

Previous Activities

Choose Your Cover Campaign
May 20, 1998 – May 20, 2003

The Choose Your Cover Campaign (CYC) was a 5–year skin cancer prevention and education campaign sponsored by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The campaign emphasized that young people can have fun outdoors, while still protecting their skin from the sun, by choosing five sun protection options: seeking shade, covering up, getting a hat, wearing sunglasses, and rubbing on sunscreen.

Although CYC campaign activities concluded May 2003, all of the materials—skin cancer facts and statistics, information for parents, campaign materials, and ready-to-use graphics—are still available.

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Current Activities

Skin Cancer Primary Prevention and Education Initiative 

CDC continues to emphasize the need for skin cancer prevention and education through funding state programs, producing evidence based guidelines, producing policy tools for schools, participating on the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention, and conducting research. Information regarding these activities can be found on the Skin Cancer Primary Prevention and Education Initiative Web page.

Below is a listing of some of the activities that CDC is currently involved with to help promote skin cancer prevention and education.

	Guidelines for Schools to Prevent Skin Cancer Guidelines for Schools to Prevent Skin Cancer, sponsored by the CDC were designed to provide schools with a comprehensive approach to preventing skin cancer among adolescents and young people. In October, 2003, CDC funded state education agencies in Colorado, North Carolina, and Michigan to collaborate with their departments of public health to conduct demonstration projects implementing the Guidelines for School Programs. Fit, Healthy, and Ready to Learn: A School Health Policy Guide In 2002, the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) published Fit, Healthy, and Ready to Learn: A School Health Policy Guide* that complements CDC's guideline for schools to prevent skin cancer. This report, developed with funding from CDC, Division of Adolescent and School Health, provides guidance to school policymakers on how to integrate sun safety into a coordinated school health program.  Recommendations on Skin Cancer Prevention Preventing Skin Cancer: Findings of the Task Force on Community Preventive Services on Reducing Exposure to Ultraviolet Light Counseling to Prevent Skin Cancer: Recommendations and Rationale of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Research results published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Recommendations and Reports on skin cancer prevention represent the first combined publication from two leading independent panels: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which is supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, which is supported by CDC. Findings from the reports include recommendations for educational and policy approaches in primary schools and in recreational and tourism settings to encourage people to wear hats or other garments to limit sun exposure.

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*Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.

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Page last reviewed: Wednesday, April 07, 2004

United States Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control