Farmers often spend most of their time outdoors – from sunup to sundown, which can lead to more risk of skin damage and skin cancers.
Dr. Allison Sindle is a dermatologist with Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, down in the Bootheel.
She comes from a farming family and spoke about some of the ways farmers – and farmers’ loved ones – can help keep them safe from the sun.
For the month of May, we're focusing on the health of farmers and farming families.
Dr. Allison Sindle: My grandpa was a farmer. My dad farms on the side. My husband farms. He's veterinarian, as well, so he's out with the cattle and things too.
But I kind of have an understanding for how those folks, you know, think and act and do, and how they work and their work ethic.
And, you know, their main priority is making sure their animals and their crops and their family and everyone are doing well, and so, they may not necessarily think about themselves.
And so, I am a very, I think, non-judgmental dermatologist. If someone comes into me and they're like, “Hey, you know, I've, I got a bad sunburn, or, you know, I'm, I'm really tan. I'm sorry I haven't been good with my sun protection this summer.”
"[A farmer's] main priority is making sure their animals and their crops and their family and everyone are doing well, and so, they may not necessarily think about themselves."Dr. Allison Sindle
I'm like, “You know what? We're all human,” like, that's okay. I'm here to help you make it better. What can we do to kind of help make sure you take good care of yourself moving forward?
I'm not judging you for what happened in the past. I'm not judging you for how things are now – everyone's doing their best they can and where they're at, and so, my goal here is just to kind of make sure we keep you healthy moving forward.
Sun safety can come in multiple avenues. I like patients to find a routine that works for them, that they're actually going to do.
So, of course, sunscreen is super important and popular, you know, it's kind of the most common ways people protect.
If they go the sunscreen route, I recommend an SPF of 30 or higher. What gets hard is the reapplication.
So, you know, a lot of farmers will say, “Hey, I put it on before I left,” you know, “my house, but I didn't do any more throughout the day.”
You know, I often will tell people maybe use a lotion or a cream as your first application and then bring a spray with you in the tractor and, you know, spray that mixture – and rub it in so that it gets an even application – but spray every few hours to kind of get that extra application throughout the day.
But then I have a lot of folks who will say, “Well, gosh, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to be all dusty and dirty. I don't want to feel sticky. I don't want to feel greasy,” you know, “I've got to work with my hands. I don't want to drop my tools.”
So, I really like sun protective clothing for them, as well. So, there are a lot of what we call UPF shirts, so there’s ultraviolet protective factor in those shirts. They're basically woven in a way that it protects against ultraviolet radiation, and most of them are sweat wicking, so they actually help reduce heat, too.
And wearing those, just kind of wearing long sleeves, wearing long pants – but ones that are cool, we don't want people overheating – can really help protect most of the body.
I have them do that and then a wide brimmed hat.
So, like, my grandpa always wore this safari hat on his head – which was hilarious, but it covered his ears, it covered his neck, you know, so covering is really helpful, too. And then you don't have to think about reapplications.
My biggest takeaways would be sun protect – number one.
Get yourself checked whether you are able to come in and see me, which would again be the best to do a full skin screening, or, you know, at least having your spouse look at home to see if there's anything unusual on your skin, like, make sure your skin is checked in some form or fashion.
And then just take ownership of your health – realize that, you know, to be the best for your farm, to be the best for your livestock, to be the best for your family, you have to also take care of yourself, and then you'll be able to be there in the long term for your family.
