Before an outing under a sunny day, be sure that you have packed the sunscreen up. As the summer approach, it’s important to be well aware of the chances of skin cancer due to the UV rays, the sun emits. Form a recent survey it has been reported that the 40 percent of the patients, those were suffering from vitamin D insufficiency, now suffering from screen cancer and with the sequence to the fact they were prescribed to take only 10 minutes of sun bath a day.
The sun emitted UV rays consist of UVA and UVB. UVA is one of the main reasons for skin cancer and skin aging. So, FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) has announced a new standard on the 14th day of June 2011, as the sunscreens holding the prior standards were intend to provide protection from sunburn, caused from UVB. It has been said to conduct a test to determine UVA and UVB protection. In earlier case the SPF test was subject to measure the ultraviolet radiation (UVB) exposure level, causing sunburn, when one was using the sunscreen comparing to the exposure level, while the sunscreen not be used. Whereas this new test will ensure that the sunscreen will provide the protection against skin cancer equivalent to sun burn.
FDA has also changed the SPF value into Broad Spectrum SPF value. A score of Broad Spectrum SPF 15 is the minimum that ensure the ability to reduce the probability of skin cancer along with sun burns, where the maximum score remains Broad Spectrum SPF 50.
According to the new announced rule, terms like water proof or sweat proof will be prohibited as it’s not possible to follow such standards. In account to the fact, terms like water resistant or sweat registrant may be used after passing through standard tests in order to ensure the effectiveness of the sunscreens for specified time durations. The sunscreen products which will pass these tests will be labeled as broad spectrum.
These new standards will come into play in the coming summer of 2012. So, the consumer is requested to be well aware while purchasing sunscreens.
In order to get protection from skin cancer it’s needed to consider sunscreen as a part of daily life. It is good to avoid the timing between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for sun bath or sun exposure, as some previous researches have proved that in between this time sun rays are most damaging. So, all of these indicate limited hour sun expose is directly proportional to the reduction of skin cancer. Simultaneously, in this case some safety measures need to be taken by making a habit of wearing long sleeve shirts and long pants.