Airlines and holiday companies are to be encouraged to step up skin cancer warnings to passengers on their way to sunshine holiday destinations.
Talks between tour operators and health groups will include the possibility of information leaflets being placed in seat pockets alongside the procedures passengers need to follow in an air emergency.
Radio stations and newspapers are to be asked to follow the example adopted by some television companies and carry the ultraviolet index during the summer. A UV index of one suggests sunburn is unlikely while eight or more suggests sensitive skin may begin to burn in under 20 minutes. There is also to be more official discouragement of people using sun beds.
The campaign to reinforce messages about the dangers of skin cancer and eye cataracts from the sun's rays is being planned by the government, cancer charities and other groups. It will include television advertising, information on NHS Direct telephone service and website, and posters bearing the message: "Don't end up like a sun-dried tomato." People who work outside will be urged to wear protective clothing by the health and safety executive.
Some details of the campaign have yet to be settled but its scale emerged at a briefing by the national radiological protection board, whose advisory group on the effects of ultraviolet radiation has strengthened its stance on the dangers from excessive sunlight. Members believe the increase in overseas holidays in the last 30 years and a tendency to throw off more clothes when people get to their destinations lies behind big increases in the number of deaths from skin cancer, about 2,000 a year.
Some holiday companies already help spread the "sun sense" message but campaign organisers hope to boost significantly their role, including putting UV ratings for different parts of the world they advertise in brochures.
Although sunscreens do offer some protection, some health officers are reluctant to get manufacturers too involved, since the products may encourage people to stay in the sun too long.
Jill Meara, the NRPB's public health physician, said: "If you go on holiday with the aim of getting a tan, you need to accept there is a risk. If you go on holiday well covered with the aim of scaling alpine peaks, you accept a different type of risk. It is important for children to be protected when they are too young to make their minds up about the risks they want to take in life."
