Melanoma screening for rangers

The Auckland Regional Council is paying for its 105 park rangers to be screened for melanoma and other types of skin cancer associated with sun exposure.

New Zealand has one of the highest rates in the world of melanoma, a skin cancer that progresses quickly but is generally curable if detected early. About one in 15 white-skinned New Zealanders are expected to develop melanoma in their lifetimes.

The rangers will have digital photographs of their skin, moles and lesions taken by nurses from the MoleMap company. Images magnified 10 times under bright lighting show up features below the skin surface that are invisible to the naked eye. Legislation requires employers to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of employees at work.

"The ARC has always taken precautions of issuing hats, long-sleeve shirts and sunscreen to its rangers, but has decided to take this significant step further," said the council's director of organisational development, Lesley Slade.

"We recognise the environmental hazards faced by our staff with outdoor occupations and regular screening is a way of ensuring their wellbeing." It costs $195 per person. The images are sent to a dermatologist who checks them and recommends treatment if needed.

The ARC-financed scheme has drawn qualified praise from the Cancer Society and dermatologist Dr Ken Macdonald, a past president of the Dermatological Society.

"It's fantastic that they are interested in skin cancer prevention," the Cancer Society's health promotion manager, Carolyn Watts, said yesterday. But the society did not recommend routine screening or one-off spot-check screening for detecting skin cancer, she said, as it was not proven to be effective.

"We do say with mole-mapping that if you are at high risk and have had melanoma or people in your family have had skin cancer or melanoma, you might want to use that as an additional tool. We don't recommend it as a first-line defence."

It was more effective to check your own skin, or have it checked by someone else, such as a GP, she said.

Outdoor workers were at greater risk of slower-progressing skin cancers than melanoma, she added.

Dr Macdonald said the ARC scheme was "probably better than nothing", but it would be better for a dermatologist to check the rangers and then to use mole-mapping, repeated at intervals, to keep tabs on those found to be at high risk of melanoma.

 

MELANOMA

The most dangerous skin cancer, but usually curable if detected early.

New Zealand has one of the highest melanoma rates in the world.

About 1600 new cases are diagnosed and 250 die from the disease each year.

Risk factors are sun exposure and serious sunburn, especially when young; family history of the disease; fair skin; and having many irregularly-shaped, multi-coloured moles that are wider than 6mm.