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Clothing best protection against harmful UV radiation

Other News Materials 2 August 2010 08:41 (UTC +04:00)
Clothing is the best protection against ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, according to cancer experts. UV can damage the skin and cause skin cancer, dpa reported.
Clothing best protection against harmful UV radiation

Clothing is the best protection against ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, according to cancer experts. UV can damage the skin and cause skin cancer, dpa reported.

A light white T-shirt blocks all but a tenth of solar UV radiation, meaning it has an ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) of 10, pointed out the organizations German Cancer Aid and the Consortium Dermatological Prevention.

Dark, closely-woven cotton clothing has UPF factors exceeding 20. In other words, such clothing allows less than a twentieth of the UV radiation to reach the skin.

Special UV protective clothing - some textiles are marked as such - have UPF factors as high as 80. By comparison, a sunshade has a factor of 5, and trees between 5 and 15, depending on the density of their foliage.

As a safety precaution, sunscreen should always be applied to skin not covered by clothing. The sunscreen should have a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 20, which guards the skin against both long-wave UV radiation (UVA) and medium-wave UV radiation (UVB).

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