'I worked outside for 20 years with my top off – then I got skin cancer'

You know summer's here when builders are seen working shirtless on a scaffold on a British street with rapidly reddening shoulders.

However, builders are now being alerted about the risks of too much sun exposure with a warning from the very same shirt they’d normally throw off.

The construction sector makes up just 8% of the UK workforce, but is responsible for 44% of occupational skin cancer deaths. Despite this alarming figure, many site workers never wear any sunscreen, let alone a shirt.

Shane McCormick, is a site worker and skin cancer survivor. He has been campaigning for sunscreen to be included in on-site gear after his own cancer scare. He says, “I worked outside for two decades and when the sun was out, the shorts were on and my top off. Sun damage wasn’t something anyone spoke about. Eventually I had a mole checked and it was cancerous.”

A new hi-vis vest which glows red when the UV risk is high could have saved Shane from getting .

This new hi-vis vest - which features a panel of long-lasting UV sensitive material - glows from white to pink to red as the suns’ strength grows, giving a physical reminder to builders of the risks of exposure and potentially saving lives. As well as this, all participating sites will have UV-U-SEE sun cream from LifeJacket Skin Protection to rub on and cover up.

The vest is the creation of skin cancer survivor, Hannah Penn, who was diagnosed with cancer aged 33, shortly after giving birth to her second child. She was astonished about the skin cancer rates among builders and the risks they take and set about creating the vest with her agency Pablo Creatives.

She has teamed up with the National Federation of Builders (NFB) and the Considerate Constructors’ Scheme – the organisation that seeks to raise standards in the construction industry and whose logo can be seen on sites that sign up to their guidelines - who made it policy for all their sites to offer the vests and available sunscreen.

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Building worker Shane adds, “I’ve since had multiple surgeries including removing a 10cm tumour and three quarters of the lymph nodes from my right arm. Melanoma is preventable and construction businesses need to take skin cancer more seriously, including sunscreen in the PPE they provide their teams.

“I don’t want others to have to go through what I’ve been through, so please make sure you’re wearing sunscreen, covering up and getting yourself checked regularly.”

Hannah says her interest in creating a vest for builders because of the high mortality rate in that industry, but the gear can eventually be used across many fields.

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She says: “I’ve had what I’d consider an entirely normal level of exposure to the sun in the UK, so when I was diagnosed aged 33, I became obsessed with how I could raise awareness of the risks I was ignorant to and stop others from getting melanoma. Unlike most cancers, skin cancer is 86% preventable.

So with the right interventions and awareness, we can save hundreds if not thousands of lives. That’s why all of us and Pablo felt so passionate and driven to use our understanding of how you use brands to change behaviour to spotlight this fatal risk within construction.

“The beauty of the we’ve created is that it will help so many people, not just those in the construction industry. The possibilities of the UV-U-SEE technology are endless – it can be added to prams to give mums peace of mind, or it can be used while playing sports or other outdoor activities, or even just as you pop to the shops.

“Melanoma is a silent killer. And one that it’s so easy to ignore. I was lucky to be caught in time. I hope this will help save other people too.”

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Research conducted by the NFB and Considerate Constructors Scheme found that, despite the risks, 39% of site workers do not think of melanoma as a workplace danger.

More than one in 4 on-site workers think that their employer does not take skin cancer seriously and just over half (51%) have not been provided with health and safety training that alerted them to the dangers of skin cancer.

Desiree Blamey, head of partnerships for Considerate Constructors Scheme, which champions construction worker wellbeing, says, “We want to change behaviour to save lives. We recognise and reward sites that take skin safety seriously. Contractors need to show a clear, proactive approach to managing UV risk, just as they would any other hazard.

“A logo showing when get dangerous is a brilliant idea as it makes the risk impossible to ignore. We want UV safety to be second nature – like hard hats and harnesses - and are committed to driving real change around UV safety across the industry.”

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