People with sensitive skin often wonder; how well does bottled sunscreen protect against UVA as well as UVB? The majority of the sunscreens on today's market protect against harmful UVB rays. Light comes in various wavelengths; infrared light, visible light, UVA rays, UVB rays, and many more. Different people are affected by different forms of light in various ways. The sensitivity of someone's skin will determine how he/she reacts to sun exposure.
People who have a condition known as Lupus are more susceptible to the effects of both UVB and UVA light. There are other conditions known as polymorphous light eruption and solar urticaria where sensitivity to both UVA and UVB is had, as well as visible light. The more sensitive someone is to UVB light, the higher the SPF rating should be on any sunscreen used. As for protection against UVA light, the higher the PPD rating is, the better it protects.
SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor and is rated according to the amount of radiation from the sun needed to cause a sunburn. For instance, if the sunscreen used has an SPF of 50, then the skin being covered with this sun block won't burn until it is exposed to fifty times the amount of normal sun light it would take for it to burn.
This amount of sun being measured doesn't only depend on the length of time spent in the sun, but the time of day needs to be taken into consideration as well.
PPD stands for Persistent Pigment Darkening and is rated in a similar fashion to the SPF ratings. While SPF measures the amount of reddening that occurs in the skin, PPD measures how dark the skin gets.
For example, if the PPD rating is 10 then this means the skin can withstand up to ten times as much UVA exposure as possible without protection. Most people don't actually apply enough sunscreen to protect skin to the maximum ability of the sun lotion being used.
Since the UVB rays are the ones that cause burning of the skin, just about every sunscreen available protects against UVB. These rays can contribute to aging and skin cancer when burning occurs, even though the UVA rays are the forms of light responsible for aging.
The UV stands for ultraviolet, the B stands for burning, and the A is for aging. If a sunscreen that protects against both UVA and UVB rays is desired, this is known as a broad spectrum sunscreen.
The UVA rays age skin and cause it to tan, but most people are more concerned with burning. This leads to most sun lotions boasting about how much they protect against UVB, while UVA rays are hardly mentioned. To find out how well does bottled sunscreen protect against UVA as well as UVB rays, be sure to check for both the SPF and the PPD ratings before making a purchase. Most sunscreens in the US provide protection for both types of UV, but there's no label that tells the wavelengths or level of UVA protection that can be found from using the sunscreens sold in the US.
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