exposed to the sun, farmers are a population at risk (and do not always know it)

Among the French most exposed to the sun, there are farmers. The number of melanomas has been multiplied by five in 30 years among French farmers. Prevention operations are multiplying, and practices are changing: the main stakeholders are increasingly protecting themselves.

>> Health: the June sun is particularly harmful to the skin

Sylvain Clerget raises Montbéliardes in Dammartin-les-Templiers, in Franche-Comté. His cows are his pride: they stay outside from April until the end of October. But he too, at the same time. “It hits… It’s starting to be a habit to have sun three-quarters of the year, or almost.” For years he worked bare-chested in the fields in the summer, but he doesn’t anymore. “Today we took a little belly, so we hide it”, he laughs. But that’s not the only reason. The breeder has especially become aware of the risks of the sun. “We remove one, then two, then three moles, and that makes people aware that you can have a risk of cancer easily. I’m still careful: I put on a cap, I no longer go shirtless like when I was young, and I wear clothes long enough to protect me.”

An increased risk of carcinoma

Preventing farmers from the risk of skin cancer is what actors like the Agricultural social mutuality (MSA) and the Health Education and Prevention Association (Asept) of which Audrey Chevalier is a member: “You should know that Franche-Comté is the second region most affected by skin cancer in France, just after Brittany. However, we do not have the sun all year round. But the UV, they are there! They cannot be felt, cannot be seen. But they are there, from January to December.”

Skin cancers in outdoor workers are more frequently carcinomas than melanomas, cancers which can be aggressive. To protect your face and neck, it’s not easy to put on sunscreen every two hours when you work outside. Doctor Marie-Estelle Roux, member of the National Union of Venereologist Dermatologists (SNDV), recommends specific creams, which have an effectiveness of up to eight hours. These are medical sun creams that will prevent the occurrence of cancer ten or fifteen years later.