Sun, Skin, & SPF

Life as freckled and fair skinned person is truly the worst of both worlds.
Not only is getting a decent tan impossible; attempting to get one results in nasty sunburn and more freckles. Add to that the increased chance of developing skin cancer and I start to wonder if I am a fully evolved human being. I mean the sun produces light and life and yet my doctors tell me it is slowly killing me.

I did my part for a while by staying inside during the sun’s strongest hours and toiling away at an indoor job. I lived in the northeast my whole life so if I could minimize the damage for three-months or so I was setup to survive the wrath of my arch nemesis. However, all that changed when I moved down to Florida and started taking jobs directly under their big orange ball of light. Talk about senselessly facing your fears. It would be like someone who cannot swim getting a job on a shrimp boat on the world’s most dangerous ocean.

There is no question that the only way to protect a face like mine is to keep it out of the sun. With that being said I do a lot of dumb and dangerous things day-to-day. There is so much in the world to look out for that you usually end up missing out. So I go toe-to-toe with my worst enemy daily but not without some help. The SPF protection of my trusty sun block fights off the sun and its harmful rays for me. It is literally a life-saver. However, sun block is not a magic coat of armor and in fact with rising SPF numbers it is being misused more than ever. This essay is meant to explain the basic functions of sun block, the meaning behind the SPF number, and how a responsible person should use it.

Sub block has gotten an SPF boost in the past couple years. Gone are the days when 15 or even 30 seem adequate. SPF 45 and 50 have become wildly popular while new SPF 85 and 100+ have begun showing up at retail stores. However, what seems like great strides in sun protection may actually be confusing people into using their sun block all wrong and essentially doing more harm than good. A sun block’s sun protection factor (SPF) measures how much protection it provides from the suns shorter-wave ultraviolet B rays (UVB), the radiation that causes sunburn (Saint Louis, 2009). So if the SPF represents our level of protection from the sun, then certainly a tube of SPF 100+ would be ten times better than one that is only SPF 10. That is not the way it works however and it is not even close. According to Galehouse (2009), SPF 15 protects against 93% of the suns UVB rays; SPF 30 is at about 97%; SPF 50 is 98%; and anything higher than that is just splitting hairs.

So why is there such a rush to shatter SPF records? Because in our minds there is there is a big difference between the number 30 and the number 100 (roughly 70). However, in the context of protection, the difference is more like 2%. This is becoming a dangerous misunderstanding because people are assuming that these bloated SPF sun blocks provide an impenetrable force field for all-day fun in the sun. And not only that, the same people are using less of it for the same reason. A general suggestion is that a person should use one ounce of sun block to exposed areas of their skin (roughly a full shot glass). Anything less and your protection drops down dramatically. Using half of the recommended amount does not mean you will get half the SPF protection. It is actually the square root of protection. For example if you use half an ounce of SPF 100 you will not receive the same protection of an SPF 50. Instead you will get the square root of 100 for protection which is 10 (Saint Louis, 2009). So the more you skimp the more useless it becomes.

I remember the first time I saw SPF 60 on the shelves of my drug store. My eyes lit up with excitement because I was landscaping at the time and I was putting on sun block constantly. I fell into the trap I described before because I thought this new sun block could not be defeated. I found out quick that no matter what the SPF number is, the only way to combat the sun is to use the sun block. These amazing numbers are meaningless if you do not reapply frequently and cover all exposed skin properly. The sun is a mighty foe and there is no miracle cream that will beat it.

References
Galehouse, M. (2009, May 22). With sunscreen, it’s a numbers game. The Houston Chronicle. Retrieved May 22, 2009, from http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/6433965.html

Saint Louis, C. (2009, May 13). Confused by SPF? Take a number. The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/fashion/14SKIN.html?_r=2