Sun Protective Clothing- Clothing With A Purpose

Sun is scorching outside and you have to step out for one reason or the other. Will you stop moving out? The answer is of course NO.
Although sunshine is essential for your health, but excessive exposure to it can definitely cause hazard or danger to your skin. It’s just not over blaming the Sun. Your lightweight and loose-woven clothes are not enough to protect you from sizzling heat of the sun. It’s time to look for a better alternative, the sun protective clothing.

Sun damage of the skin can be either acute or chronic, but the main reason or factor is the ultra-violet radiation that causes aging of the skin. It is seen that skin cancer is mainly due to over exposure to sun as the ultra violet rays come in direct contact with the skin DNA and cell functioning that effects the skin system. Other common problems involved with sun exposure are wrinkles, leathery skin, pre-malignant actinic keratoses and the immune system. Hence the need of sun protective clothing becomes important.

Sun protective clothing is specially designed for protection from sun and is made from a fabric graded for its level of UV protection. Laboratory tests have shown that cotton fabric allows 50% of harmful UV rays penetrate to your skin when dry and 10 to 20 % more when your skin is wet. Tightly woven fabrics are considered more useful for protecting your skin from the sun’s harmful UV rays. These UV protective clothes are restricted to some specific design parameters like long sleeves, full collar, full-length trousers and skirt. Sun protective clothing is usually worn in a warm and humid temperature. Clothes with a UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) of 15 to 50+ are meant to be sun-protective. The higher the UPF, the longer a person can tolerate the sun.

Sun protective clothing with a UPF is more effective as compared to sunscreens. Sunscreens with a high SPF cannot endure that much UV rays as a UPF protected clothing. Unlike SPF, that measures only UVB, sun protection clothes with UPF measures both UVA and UVB. Most of the apparels tagged with sun protection usually have UPF 50+.

Sun protective clothing was initially popularized in Australia as an alternative to sunscreens and sun block creams. They follow a standard lab testing procedure that was developed in 1996 by Australian swimwear companies. In America, the UPF rating system was standardized by American Standards and Testing Methods (ASTM). The standards have been adopted by fabric manufacturers to harmonize consumer awareness and safety at large.
With the increasing demand in sun protection clothing, many textile manufacturers have developed sun proof fashion statements; wherein the market is flooded with a variety of swim suits, sun hats, sun proof T-shirts, shorts, pants etc.