Sun Protection from 7spf to 1700spf
April 2, 2007 by Liz Lewis
Filed under A Mother's Wisdom, Cancer, Gear, How To, Prevention
Photo: Kor Bras
Now that we’re seeing the sun in the sky a bit more often, we’re all pulling up the video camp and moving outside for fun and games. You do need to protect your skin, however. You don’t want to be paying for those hours in the sun years from now with a nasty skin cancer. While you can use various creams and lotions to block those harmful rays, clothing can also protect you. It’s not all created equal, however, when it comes to fighting the sun.
As a rule, darker, heavier, more tightly woven clothing protects better than lighter models. A short sleeve white t-shirt, everyone’s favorite on the beach, does zilch to protect your skin from ultra violet (UV) rays. Its average skin protection factor (SPF) is about 7. On the other end of the spectrum, so to speak, a long-sleeved denim shirt has an SPF of about 1700—ain’t nothin’ getting’ through those sleeves. But who wants to wear denim to the beach? Obviously, you want to settle for something in between. Even trading your white t for a dark green one increases the SPF to 10.
Hold your shirt up to the light. If you can see through it, UV light can shine through it. What you’re doing in that shirt also makes a difference in its protective ability. Wet cloth can lose up to 50% of its sun block ability. And that old stand by that you’ve stretched out of shape and worn thin won’t do nearly for your skin what it did when it was new.
Some clothing manufacturers are helping out by producing clothing with UV protection built in. They add a colorless compound to help protect your more vulnerable areas. They’re rated by UPF, which means Ultraviolet Protection Factor, and they measure how much of the sun’s radiation is absorbed. If it’s absorbed by the cloth, it won’t make it through to your skin. So if you buy a shirt marked UPF 50, that means only 1/50 of the sun’s UV rays will hit your skin. You can also buy special laundry detergent that will transform an ordinary looking garment into a UV ray protector. Amazing.
Further Reading: Skin Cancer Foundation
