Get Educated About Sun Safety
In addition to The Sun Bus Epiphany Tour and community events such as festivals and fairs, The Sun Bus provides fun and engaging educational activities about sun safety and skin health at Colorado K-12 schools between November and May. As funds grow and outreach capabilities expand, The Sun Bus will incorporate melanoma research initiatives to further increase the knowledge associated with this deadly cancer. The Sun Bus has integrated 3 state-of-the art cameras, the Canfield facial skin imagers Reveal® and Visia, and the 395 nm UV detecting camera to make public education engaging and more memorable.
The Reveal Facial Imager is a special camera that shows facial skin sun damage not seen by the naked eye accumulated over a lifetime. The more contrast (darker spots against lighter background) a person has, the more sun damage they have received over their life and the higher their chances of developing skin cancer. Typically, younger people or those with darker skin have less sun damage (see example Image 1) while older individuals with lighter completion and/or a history of sun exposure without sunscreen have more sun damage (see example Image 2).
Example Image 1 (Left)
Example Image 2 (Right).
The Ultra Violet Camera
The side of the Sun Bus has a special camera installed that demonstrates to visitors how sunscreens work. This camera detects the UV light spectrum and can visualize on the skin how UV absorbing vs UV reflecting sunscreens work. UV absorbing sunscreens absorb UV light and appear black (see example image 3); UV reflective sunscreen reflects UV light and appears like metallic white when the skin is exposed to UV light. (see example image 4).
Example Image 3. UV absorbing sunscreens appear dark on the UV camera because they absorb UV light.
Example Image 4. UV reflective sunscreen appear white on the UV camera because they reflect UV Light. EltaMD is a UV reflective sunscreen.
Additional Information
If you would like to learn more about the Sun Bus, contact us directly by visiting our contact page.