Protection, clothing, stain: UV-resistant clothing and the misunderstanding about sunscreen

Skin cancer prevention slogan is: “Stay away, clothes, grease.” In that order, Dr. Arjan van Dijk, president of Zonkrachtactieplatform (ZAP), says: “Be the first to ‘return’, because you don’t have to solve a problem you’re not looking for. Then ‘clothing’, so if you go out, make sure the sunlight doesn’t reach your skin. Only in the third case: Put sunscreen on what is still coming out of your clothes.”

If you’re wearing a white shirt and it gets wet, Van Dijk says, its SPF is around 2. “Nobody buys a sunscreen with SPF 2. So a regular shirt is under-used for good UV protection.” Most of the shirts are woven. It is also possible to tie a shirt. “Then you think of goat wool socks, but the technique is cutting edge these days,” Van Dyck says. “When you sew gossamer yarn, you get a soft, fluffy result where ‘certified’ UVB rays (factor 50 for UVB and UVA) don’t reach.” If doctors want to offer a solution, these UV-resistant clothing works well. It is also normal for a leather jacket and jeans to provide good protection against UV rays without certification.”

Sunscreen and UV filter

There are two challenges with sunscreen: a poorly regulated UVA filter in the European Union (EU) and an SPF on the “jokes” of the bottle. what is going on? “UV rays from the sun can be divided into UVA, UVB and UVC based on wavelength. The latter does not penetrate the atmosphere, so we get rid of it. UVB rays can lead to erythema and skin cancer. For this reason, sunscreens focus on suppressing UVB. It is now clear that UVA rays also have adverse health effects, including skin aging and radical formation in the dermis, which can contribute to melanoma formation and immune suppression.”

So a good sunscreen blocks both UVA and UVB rays. Cream with a mild UVA filter does not achieve SPF on the bottle in Holland, where the sun’s rays are low and the UVA share is high. This could be more than a factor of 2! Sun Protection Factor (SPF) is a measure of UV rays suppression. So UV rays are allowed to pass through this filter. “If you’re using a sunscreen that blocks UVB rays, but allows UVA to pass through, and you go out longer in proportion to your SPF, you’ve received a multiple dose of UVA,” Van Dijk says. “This is bad for your health.”

The EU already allows the UVA logo to be placed on the cream if UVA is suppressed by a third of the SPF. Van Dyck thinks that’s really too little. “A quarter of a century ago, Boots designed a quality system of UVA filters in England. A 5-star cream that has a UV attenuation of 90% of the sun protection factor. This cream provides good global protection. It is hard to come by. In Holland and very expensive, but in England and also in Ireland there are cheap 5 star home brands in every store.So they are well protected there.When you tell youngsters that UVA causes skin aging and that 5 star sunscreen is the best anti wrinkle cream That should attract. Now the Dutch specials.”

Sjoemel sunscreen

If the sun is high, a person with pale skin in the Netherlands can spend 10 minutes in the sun without getting burned without protection. The SPF on the sunscreen does not mean that a person who has used factor-50 can be in the sun 50 times 10 minutes. “It’s seen that way,” says Van Dyck. “The SPF on the bottle does not appear to be a consumer protection factor, but is based on the thickness of the synthetic film required to reliably measure the cream with the lamp.”

In order to achieve said protective factor, someone would have to apply the thickness of a layer of peanut butter, says Van Dyck. People apply half to a third of this thickness. Makes sense, because otherwise you’re emptying a bottle with a family with 3 kids per moisturizer. People don’t: a thick coat is not suitable for children playing in the sand, and it is expensive. People have much less protection than the SPF indicates. With a true layer of SPF-50 thicker you have an SPF of 4 to 17. The latter is similar to factor 15, which is said to be very little.”

This is why Van Dijk sometimes uses the term sunscreen cheat. “Actually, the SPF on the bottle shouldn’t be mentioned, but only actual skin protection should be mentioned. Of all the health effects, sunscreen should protect the worst from sunburn, while it is currently being optimized for it. Erythema is the Your smoke detector; it shouldn’t be disabled.”