PORT JEFFERSON — Mather Hospital and Northwell have continued a community skin cancer prevention program by offering free SPF 30 sunscreen dispensers. Mather partners with Port Jefferson Village and Brookhaven Town to make the dispensers widely available at beaches, parks, pools and other locations where people gather in the warmer months. The newest location is at Heritage Park in Mt. Sinai.
Sunscreen can help prevent skin cancer by protecting the skin from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, which can damage skin cells and cause cancer. SPF, or sun protection factor, indicates how long the sun’s UVB rays would take to redden your skin compared with the amount of time without sunscreen. If you apply SPF 30 generously and evenly, and reapplied after two hours or after sweating or swimming, it would take you 30 times longer to burn than if you weren’t wearing sunscreen, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
“Mather and Northwell are proud to sponsor these dispensers to help reduce the risk of skin cancer during the warmer months when people are exposed to the potentially harmful rays of the sun while at the beach or park,” said Executive Director Kevin McGeachy. “It’s one of our many efforts to help prevent and treat cancer in our community through prevention and early detection.”
“These sunscreen dispensers are a small part of Mather Hospital’s larger efforts to improve the health of our communities by addressing a devastating disease through education, prevention, early detection, and treatment,” said Mather Medical Director Joseph Ng, MD. “We hope that through our concerted efforts, we can stop cancer before it starts.”
The Port Jefferson dispensers are located at Harbor Front Park, Rocketship Park, East Beach, West Beach and the Port Jefferson Country Club. In Brookhaven the dispensers can be found at Cedar Beach, Cedar Beach West, Corey Beach, West Meadow Beach, Centereach Pool, Holtsville Pool, Davis Park, Shoreham Park and Heritage Park.
About Mather Hospital
Mather Hospital is an accredited 248-bed, non-profit community teaching hospital dedicated to providing a wide spectrum of high-quality health care services to Suffolk County residents, showing compassion, respect and treating each patient in the manner we would wish for our loved ones. Mather earned the highest five-star rating for 2024 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for outcomes, patient experience and process and has the prestigious Magnet® recognition three times from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice. The hospital was rated high performing by U.S. News & World Report 2024-2025 Best Hospitals rankings in gastroenterology & GI surgery; geriatrics; neurology & neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology & lung surgery; COPD; heart failure; hip fracture; kidney failure; leukemia, lymphoma & myeloma; and pneumonia. Mather also was named one of America’s 250 best hospitals for 2023 and 2024 by Healthgrades and received the Healthgrades 2024 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ for the fourth consecutive year, as well as its 20th top A grade in the spring 2024 ratings for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group. Our Graduate Medical Education program prepares physicians for future careers through Internal Medicine, Transitional Year, Diagnostic Radiology, Interventional Radiology, and Psychiatry residency programs and gastroenterology and hematology/oncology fellowships. For information about Mather Hospital, visit matherhospital.org or follow us @MatherHospital on Facebook.
About Northwell Health
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 21 hospitals, about 900 outpatient facilities and more than 12,000 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 87,000 employees – 18,900 nurses and 4,900 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We’re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu and follow us @NorthwellHealth on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn.