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Diary

  Health
Sun protection: Preconcieved ideas

We all like the grace of the sun. Vitamine D is produced thanks to the sunlight. Vitamine D is essentials to us to help the body absorb calcium and phosphate from our diet. It is also a free mood enhancer. Being in the sun can make people feel better and have more energy.

But before spending the day lying on the beach with your family under the blazing sun, we are suggesting you to review the impact of the sun and some preconceived ideas before going on holidays.

We often take part in mistaken beliefs regarding sun protection. There must be no flights of fancy which are transmitted from mothers to daughters. It is time to tell the truth and put several generally accepted ideas to rest once and for all.

It doesn’t matter, we will wear a tee-shirt !

For instance, wearing a simple cotton tee-shirt to protect against the sun. Just to remind you, that the rays filtered by the anorexic ozone layer are responsible for delayed sun burns, skin aging and arise skin cancers. While a normal cotton tee-shirt let one ray of sun out of five go through and loose half of the its efficiency once it is wet, a certified UPF 50 tee-shirt against UVs allows a very efficient sun protection filtering 98% of the UVs.

Today there are two ways of making a tee-shirt UV resistant. The first one is to apply some chemicals filters directly onto the tee-shirt so it makes it appealing for the consumer. The problem is that some studies have shown that the more the fabric is wet and stretched, the more the chemical filters disappear. In the end, the more your child is going to swim, the less he or she is going to be protected against the UVs!

The second way to make a UV resistant tee-shirt is to have a fabric made with tight weave. Two fabrics are known as the most naturally efficient against the UVs, they are denim and corduroy fabrics. They are very efficient when wore in town, but we are not very sure about how comfortable a denim bikini would be.

It doesn’t matter, we are going to put some sunblock!

Regarding the sun protection we would like to talk about the sunblock. According to the marketing, we would need to put about 5 spray per arm every 2 hours on our child skin. Which means about 5 or 6 tablespoons for the whole body…how about a mummy look?

If we follow that rule it would mean that according to a recent study, we would need to spend about 2500 euros for a family of 5 on holidays for a month. Not really surprising that manufacturers see each year millions of tubes of sunblock sold. Despite the very high cost of the sunblock it has been proved that it can be inefficient and even dangerous for our skin. According to an American association (EWG). Only one product out of 4 would be really efficient against the undesirable effects of the sun.

Some of them are actually even worse because they offer you a delicious mix of preservatives, chemical substances suspected of being carcinogenic and endocrine disruptor having an alarmist impact on our well being and the marine ecosystem The amount of sunblock which goes each year into all the seas of our planet is estimated between 6000 and 14 000 tonnes. The result is some corals are getting white and some species are disappearing. Not surprising that the Hawaii archipelago wish to ban the use of this poison from its waters.

It doesn’t matter, we go to Brittany!

The famous popular saying which suggests that nobody needs to protect themselves when the sky is cloudy won’t be spared either. We tell ourselves secretly that: «there is not much sun, I am going to lay on the beach to rest. Umbrella in the boot of the car.»

It is not because you choose to go on holidays in Belle-Ile or in Quimper, that your health capital won’t be affected. It is actually the contrary. The proof is that in 2014, Brittany identified 1305 cases of melanoma, which is three times more than the national average.

But which are the UVA and UVB and why all this fuss?

Because they penetrate our skin and are being recognised as responsible for many problems. UVAs and UVBs are waves which have different lengths. UVBs have an average wave, which are responsible for delayed burns and are for most of them stopped in the epidermis. UVAs attack our skin deeply until damaging the dermis layer and are responsible of skin cancers in the long term.

And UPF, what does it mean?

Cosmetic brands have talked about SPF (Sun Protection Factor) for a long time – even of total sunblock which is not authorised anymore in Europe because no sunblock can protect yourself completely from the sun.

With the arrival of the sun-beds in the 90s, awareness around UVs have increased and a new unit called UPF (Ultra-violet Protection Factor) has appeared in Australia. It was first created to measure the efficiency of the fabrics against the UVs, then cosmetics manufacturers have also developed some sunblock, which level of sun protection would reach the maximum, a UPF 50+. Quite weird my dear Watson?

From this sad observation, we just want to save our skin! We all have a different sun capital which is unique and given from the birth. You can’t renew it. It depends on the type of skin you have and your sensitivity under the exposure. And when the sun capital reaches its limit, damaged cells can’t regenerate themselves and that’s when it becomes complicated, especially for our children.

A tanned child in the 80s was usual, even common. Today, it has become « has been » and we can only approve this way of thinking. Did you know that a child receives more than half of the rays he or she is meant to receive in his or her whole life before his or her twenties? Our children suffer a lot because their skin cells are very thin and don’t benefit from the same capacity of regeneration as an adult. The sun is a very dangerous enemy for them.

The answer from dermatologists is dressing your child with a certified UPF50+ anti UV tee-shirt. This rating protection will guarantee you to protect your skin from 95% of UVBs and 98% of UVAs. It is quite interesting when you know that 60% of the body risk areas are located on the back, the arms and the chest of our sweeties.

To find out more about sun protection and the history and tanning, it's over here.



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