If you are one of the one million people who received a diagnosis of skin cancer last year you are most likely looking for any and all measures of future protection including sunscreen and protective clothing. As a skin cancer survivor you know the importance of protecting your skin from harmful rays. As we take a look at the basics of protective clothing remember that you can ‘pay it forward’ and encourage friends and family members to wear these garments to avoid cancer.
Protective Clothing
In Victorian times women avoided the sun as much as possible – fair skin was considered a true mark of beauty and elegance. This was often reflected in the clothing of the times: long sleeves and skirts that showed no skin; hats that did not allow the sun to hit the face.
Experts in protective clothing are not asking you to step back in time. However, they do encourage long sleeves and pants with a tight weave made from a synthetic material. The clothing should have an Ultraviolet Protection Factor or UPF for ultimate protection against skin cancer.
In addition to avoiding loosely woven fabrics, look for clothing with thirty percent or lower of cotton, linen, and other such fabrics. Choose clothing in black, green, beige, dark blue, and white.
What’s the big deal? If the clothing stretches while you are wearing it or during washing, if it sticks to your skin when you sweat, or wears out quickly from laundering and use you will not get the UPF you need to protect your skin from damaging rays. Stick with the basic rules and you can avoid harmful UV radiation exposure.
UPF
All types of fabric protect you from UV rays to some extent. Clothing with a high Ultraviolet Protection Factor, (from 15 to 50 plus), offers your best protection.
A unique rating system, UPF lets you know how well a certain fabric will protect you from damaging UV rays. As the UPF number of a garment goes up so does the amount of sun protection offered.1
Do not get UPF confused with SPF. They are similar, but not the same. SPF, or sun protection factor, is used to clarify and rate the effectiveness of sunscreen products. UPF rates a fabric’s ability to protect you from UVA and UVB light.2 You will receive the best protection when you use both SPF and UPF clothing.
The Rating System for UPF Clothing 
The rating system for UPF clothing ranges from 15, (good) to 50 plus (excellent). Keeping in mind that all fabric will absorb some UV rays you should not be fooled into thinking you do not need specialized UPF clothing to protect your skin. In fact, not all fabrics respond in the same way to UV rays. The way a fabric is made, the dye used to color the fabric, and any treatments used on the fabric all effect the way the fabric responds to UV rays. In a normal situation the fabric would transform the majority of UV rays to heat and render many damaging UV harmless. But once a fabric is treated this is not always the case.3
A shirt with a UPF rating of 50 will allow 1/50th, or 2 percent, of the UV rays to hit your skin. A shirt rated 25 will allow 4 percent of the UV rays to pass through to your skin.4
And a basic white t-shirt? Clothing that does not meet the standards to be labeled UPF 15 or higher cannot receive a UPF label. It is estimated that the basic white t-shirt would have a UPF rating of 5- up to 20 percent of the harmful UV rays could pass through the fabric to your skin!
The Fabric
There are certain factors that can boost a UPF rating. You can look for these factors as you shop.
- Construction: minimized space between yarns lessons the UV rays that get through to skin
- Dyes: Dye, not color, effects UV rays and the only way to know what dyes are used is by the garment’s UPF rating
- Treatments: UV absorbing treatments may be added to the fabric during construction
- Fiber: While polyester is excellent at deflecting UV rays, cotton and rayon get low marks
- Stretch: Fabric that is stretched beyond 10 percent of its natural weave offers less than optimal UV protection as the fibers are opened up
- Wetness: Wet fabric reduces UV protection up to fifty percent in some cases
- Condition: Wear and tear can effect the way fabric performs to protect you against UV rays5
The Need for a Rating System
A study by Ruhr University in Germany found that a UPF system for protective clothing could be helpful. In this study, dermatologists compared over 200 different summer fabrics, looking specifically at their UV effectiveness. They discovered that of the fabrics, thirty-three percent, had a natural UPF of below 15. Nineteen percent had a UPF between 15 and 30. The largest number of fabrics, forty-four percent, had a UV rating of 30 plus.6
It is not easy to choose the best clothing to protect you from harmful UV rays. As the study from Ruhr University shows, only approximately one-half of the clothing we buy has appropriate sun and UV protection.7 The ability to buy protective clothing with a UPF rating will greatly improve your ability to manage the care of your skin and your health. Whether you have had skin cancer or are proactive in protecting your skin, UPF fabrics are a step in the safe direction
References
1 About Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) Testing (2011) Australian Government – Australian Radiation Protection and Nucelar Safety Agency. Retrieved at: www.arpansa.gov.au/services/upf/index.cfm
2 Ibid
3 Ibid
4 UV Radiation Information. 2011) Hong Kong Obvservatory. Retrieved at: www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/uvindex/english/uvprotect.htm
5 REI. (n.d.). Understanding Protective Clothing. www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/sun+protection.html
6 Gambichler, T. R. (2001). Protection Against Ultraviolet Radiation in Commercial Summer Clothing: Need for Standardized Testing and Labeling. BMC Dermatology: www.biomedcentral.com/1471-5945/1/6
7 Ibid
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