A sight that's become common in just about every public space these days are hand sanitizer dispensers. But this past weekend in Pennsylvania I saw something that also seems like a no-brainer, especially for Ocean County - sunscreen dispensers.

Before I'm going to write an article like this, I always make a point to do some research to make sure that I have my facts straight and that I'm not missing something obvious.

But when I was researching this, I found a lot of articles about free sunscreen programs across both Pennsylvania and New York, but not New Jersey. And that really surprised me.

The trio of bright yellow machines that I saw on my weekend visit to Pennsylvania were in Pine Grove Furnace State Park, not far from Gettysburg, and are part of a pilot program that the state kicked off a few weeks ago.

I was in the exact situation that these things are absolutely perfect for - I was outside on a day with the sun beating down and hadn't thought to pack sunscreen for my trip.

How many times has that happened to you?

You can jump back in the car and run to a convenience store to buy a bottle of sunscreen that will probably end up rattling around the bottom of a bag for years and end up as a useless oily mess by the time you remember that you have it.

You can go to a shop on the boardwalk and pay about three times the price that you'd pay just about anywhere else in the world (besides maybe Disney World).

Or you can do what most of us probably do - try to find some shade and hope that you don't get burned.

But sunscreen dispensers like the ones being deployed in our neighboring states would solve that problem. It's on-demand sunscreen where it's needed the most, and people can take just as much as they need.

So what do you think, should sunscreen dispensers become just as ubiquitous as hand sanitizer dispensers? Chime in on the comments section and let us know if you'd use them!

 

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