The bikini turns 60 this month and makes news not just for its birthday but also for its new feature -- a built-in alarm to warn wearers to get out of the sun. Not all bikinis will talk -- but those made by Canadian company Solestrom will. Solestrom has created a new bikini that goes on sale next month with a UV meter built into its belt and an alarm that sounds when it's time to seek shade. The meter on the $190 bikini displays a level of UV intensity on a scale from 0 to 20. Three to five is moderate strength, eight to 10 is very high, and anything above 11 is extreme. A person's sensitivity to UV depends mainly on skin type so this scale operates in general terms.

Despite increasing awareness of the sun's dangers, sales remain strong for the bikini. So Solestrom developed this suit to ease some of the worries about the sun's damaging rays. They have already been met with high demand from Australia and South Africa -- where skin cancer rates are highest. The United States -- now in the loop too -- has about 1 million new skin cancer cases each year.

The Environmental Protection Agency has created the SunWise School Program and SunWise Kids, as an environmental and health education program offering teaching tools for schools, communities and kids in learning about sun safety. From building shade structures to sun protection advice, the program is designed to appeal to kids.

The SunWise Kids website lets kids know the skin cancer risks caused by too much sun exposure and how to protect themselves from sun damage. Kids will find a trivia game and action steps to take to be sun safe. There is the Survivor's Challenge and SunWise Action Steps. In addition, there is a UV Index scale that allows kids to learn more about each UV level. The SunWise Kids website resource includes an educational area on the ozone layer that explains how we got to where we are in the increased dangers of sun exposure.

If a school joins the SunWise Program and orders a UV meter, they will receive the SunWise toolkit that includes activities and a UV sensitive Frisbee that changes color when exposed to the sun. With the meter kids can measure how much UV radiation reaches their town. Kids can enter the UV information on the SunWise web site. Then they can look at the data and compare UV numbers with the National Weather Service's UV Index. For more information, go to SunWise Kids.

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