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 Researchers analyzing available shade in St. Louis elementary
schools found a steady decrease in the amount of shade, especially
from trees, with an increase in the number of children who qualified
for subsidized lunches, according to the results in JAMA
Dermatology.
And that means poor kids are more exposed to the sun's damaging
rays, said the study's lead author, Jolee Potts, a medical student
at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
"Shade on playgrounds is important because UV exposure is cumulative
- meaning as you age, all of the sun exposure over your entire life
adds up and contributes to your risk of getting skin cancer,
including melanoma," Potts said in an email. "About half of lifetime
UV exposure occurs in childhood, making this time especially
important for prevention. Adequate playground shade can also help
immediately protect kids that are especially susceptible to the sun,
including those with very fair skin, kids with conditions like
lupus, or kids taking medications that make them more sensitive to
the sun."
Potts and coauthor Dr. Carrie Coughlin analyzed data from 174
elementary schools, including 139 in St. Louis County and 35 in the
city of St. Louis.
They used subsidized school lunches as a proxy for household income
and socioeconomic status. Their data on free and reduced-price
lunches came from the Missouri Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education's Comprehensive Data System.
To estimate available shade for each school, the researchers turned
to Google Earth Pro. With the satellite data and imagery provided by
that software, they were able to visualize and measure the area of
each school playground along with the shade cover from trees and
shade structures.
"Trees provided 97% of the shade we measured and stand-alone
structures made to provide shade made up the other 3%," Potts said.
"This is important because trees lose their leaves in the fall, but
the sun emits dangerous UV rays during every season."
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Among the 174 schools, the average amount of shaded playground was
7.6%. Half of schools had 5.6% or less shaded area and 21 schools
had no shade at all. The proportion of children getting subsidized
lunches at individual schools ranged from 6.1% to 94.9%.
The researchers found that the amount of shade in playgrounds
decreased as the number of children receiving subsidized lunches
increased. More specifically, there was a decrease of approximately
22 square feet of shade with every 1% increase in the proportion of
children getting a subsidized lunch.
The lack of shade adds to a long list of disparities between high-
and low-income school districts, said Joyce Pressley, an associate
professor of epidemiology and health policy at the Mailman School of
Public Health at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York
City.
"Higher-income school districts have better playground equipment,
more updated playground equipment and more appropriate groundcover,"
Pressley said. "The fact that there is not as much shade in the
lower-income school districts is not surprising."
The dearth of trees in many school playgrounds is unfortunate
because "trees also are important for heat moderation in the
summer," Pressley said. "And that can make a difference in terms of
dehydration and heat exposure."
School districts that want to improve the situation by adding
greenery might consider partnering up with forestry programs and
public gardening clubs, Pressley said. "There are ways this could be
done less expensively," she added.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2KL50pM JAMA Dermatology, online August 14,
2019.
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