Each year, as the hot weather approaches, The Tunisian Ministry of Health renews his warnings: Avoid direct exposure between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., hydrate regularly, wear light clothesand above all, Use a suitable sunscreen.
But despite this methodical rehearsal, behaviors evolve little. Ten years of reminders were not enough to install a real culture of solar prevention.
In 2015the ministry sounded a first media alert: a sunscreen marketed under the name Trio s preventive photoprotective proved to be a dangerous counterfeiting. The product, sold out of legal circuit, exposed its users to serious skin risks.
This scandal already asked an essential question: how to protect your skin if the protection itself is falsified ?
Three years later, in 2018the approach becomes educational. With the countryside “The one who loves you protects you”the Tunisian dermatology company, supported by the ministry, is trying to raise public awareness of the risks linked to UV. Leaflets, free screening, presence on beaches: the initiative is praised, but its effect remains limited.
Between 2019 and 2020heat waves amplify calls for vigilance. The recommendations become almost ritual: avoid hot hours, drink water, protect infants and the elderly. But each summer brings back its share of Sunburn and dehydrationproof that the alert is diluted in the habit.
In 2025the observation is tightened. The ministry is no longer content to call for caution: it denounces the proliferation of non -compliant sunscreensold on the parallel or online market, often ineffective, even harmful. Certain creams contain controversial chemical filters, such as oxybenzone or octocrylene.
Faced with this, the authorities recommend products based on Mineral filters (zinc oxide or titanium dioxide)by insisting on the need for Read the labels, respect the expiration dates, and reapply every two hours.
But these public health messages are struggling to win. In Tunisia, as elsewhere, the sun remains associated with freedom, in summer, with pleasure. The risk seems abstract – until it is no longer.
