Almost all skin cancers are caused by overexposure to UV radiation, children and young people are particularly at risk.
High quality and well-designed shade can reduce exposure to the sun's harmful UV rays by up to 75%. When used with other effective forms of sun protection, shade is one of the best ways to prevent skin cancer.
Discover more about designing natural and built shade, plus how to make shade a long term planning and design priority for sun protection in our playgrounds, parks and outdoor public spaces.
Find out about how the sun's path and shadows affects specific public spaces with SunCalc.
1. Parsons, P., Neale, R., Wolski, P. & Green, A. 1998, ‘The shady side of solar protection’, Medical Journal of Australia, 168: 327–330
2. Arnold, M., de Vries, E., Whiteman, D., Jemal, A., Bray, F., Parkin, D.M., Soerjomataram, 2018. Global burden of cutaneous melanoma attributable to ultraviolet radiation in 2012, Int. J. Cancer: 143, 1305-1314