Archive for March, 2007

Wash-in Sunscreen

Published at March 21, 2007 in Health and Sunscreen. 0 Comments

Since my previous article, Physical vs. Chemical Sunscreens, I found out there are other ways to protect yourself from the sun. The most obvious being sunscreen with the more obscure being your… clothing? While clothing provides a reasonable amount of protection from the sun already, it is very much lower than you would expect. While it depends on the material, color, thickness, and thread type; an average white t-shirt provides a person with 5 UPF (UV Protection Factor). Which sounds very much like the SPF (Sun Protection Factor), but it is a different concept. It means for 5 UV waves that strike your clothing, one will get through. Meaning, your shirt blocks 4 out of 5 UV waves, or eighty percent.
For most of you, this will be acceptable. However, there are some of us, like me, who were under the impression that our clothing completely protects us from the SUN’S VIOLENT RAYS. Of course this will change from shirt to shirt and chances are it will be higher, but you cannot be certain.

So, there are a some options:

  1. apply sunblock like a madman
  2. buy clothing with higher UPF ratings
  3. increase your clothing’s UPF rating.

Option one and two to me are impractical. Applying sunblock like a madman is expensive and time consuming, while buying new clothing can be the same. When looking at some online retailers, I found that a shirt with some sort of UPF rating costs thirty to sixty dollars. That is why I chose and I would recommend giving Sun Guard a try. It is a detergent mix-in which applies a transparent layer of TINOSORB to your clothing to give you 30 UPF rating. This is about the same amount as you would get if you paid for a typical shirt for fifty dollars, except you can mix it in with a full load and fifteen of your shirts are now protected. Now the best part of it all is that it only costs $1.99 plus shipping.

For those who are fine with eighty percent protection for the sun, good for you, but if you want up to as much as ninety-six percent, then I would go with Sun Guard. I must forewarn you though, Sun Guard does wear off after about twenty washings, just as it does with the shirts purchased with protection (option 2). Also, when you mix in the powder into your detergent you must use hot water and allow then to sit for close to fifteen minutes, which may be a problem for some of you.

Sun guard has been recommended by the Skin Cancer Foundation

Physical vs. Chemical Sunscreens

Published at March 15, 2007 in Health and Sunscreen. 1 Comment

There is a lack of confident knowledge about the properties and usefulness of sunblock. Sunblock is intended to protect the skin from ultra violet electromagnetic wavelengths. This is a portion electromagnetic spectrum which is invisible to human sight. There are several categories of ultraviolet light. There is ultra violet A, B, and C. Each of them have different affects on the body and highly dangerous.

Ultraviolet A (UVA) waves are between 320 nm and 400 nm in length and damage the collagen in the skin, causing it to lose elasticity and begin to wrinkle. Ultraviolet B (UVB) waves are between 290 nm and 320nm in length and cause the skin to tan and burn by stimulating the melanocyte cell. In addition, it is known to have a carcinogenic effect by “a process of direct photochemical damage to DNA from which gene mutations arise”1. As it is believed of now, ultraviolet C (UVC) is not as much of an issue because the ozone blocks a majority of these waves, but with the depletion of the ozone this will become more of an issue.

Continue reading ‘Physical vs. Chemical Sunscreens’