High School Students' Perceptions of How Major Global Environmental Effects Might Cause Skin Cancer

Abstract

In this investigation the dominant beliefs of students aged 13–14 years about the possible links between increases in skin cancer and global environmental effects are quantified. The results indicate that a high proportion of students were aware that depletion of the ozone layer leads to a higher penetration of ultraviolet (UV) rays, which, in turn, may cause an increase in the incidence of skin cancer. However, a large proportion of these students confused the action of heat rays with that of UV rays; they also thought that raised temperatures (i.e., the greenhouse effect) are culpable. Only 1 in 10 of the students exclusively held the scientifically correct model: that ozone depletion, via higher penetration of UV rays, may lead to skin cancer.