A recent discussion on
Talk Radio 702 has highlighted the quality and ef- fectivity of
sun screening products in
South Africa. One of RegimA’s chemists tried without success
to phone through, and as a
result Jacqui Faucitt herself wrote a letter to the talk-show
hosts. Herewith, exerts
from her letter.
Since the introduction of
sunscreens and sunblock's skin cancer rates have begun to
climb and not fall. For
example, melanoma rates doubled from 6 to 13 per 100,000
people since 1973. Skin
cancer diagnoses surpass all other cancer, according to the
American Cancer Society.
• UVA penetrates your skin
more deeply and causes the most free radical damage.
UVA rays are thought to be
more responsible for wrinkling or premature
ageing of the skin.
• UVB, which only
penetrates the outer skin layer, is the primary cause of sunburn
and non-melanoma skin
cancer. UVB rays are also the ones that help your skin
produce vitamin D.
• UVA rays are quite
constant during all the hours of daylight throughout the entire
year. By comparison, UVB
waves are lower in morning and evening and most intense
at midday.
SPF technically applies only
to UVB rays, which cause sunburn, not UVA rays, which
cause cancer and ageing.
"Broad-spectrum" sunscreens theoretically protect against
both, but up until now
they have never had to prove it. That's changing. In order to
bear the label, any
sunscreen labelled SPF 15 or higher must meet wavelength tests to
show that it protects
against UVA rays. Sunscreens with an SPF lower than 15 won't
even be allowed to bear
the "broad-spectrum" label.
• RègimA has already
complied with the new regulations and the extra Colipa
testing. External
packaging (boxes) must comply and state whether low,medium, high and they must
state whether they conform to EU regulation and Colipa.
• Most people wrongly
focus solely on the SPF factor within a product when deciding what would be the
best choice of skin protection. SPF means “sun protection factor” and
refers only to protection against UVB radiation, which causes burning,
inflammation and damage of the skin which is all visible to the naked eye. It has nothing
to do with UVA radiation that penetrates deep into the skin, accelerates skin
ageing and may later cause skin cancer. This UVA burning is not visible.
The SPF statement is only a measure of how well thesunscreen deflects UVB
rays.
Warning: Sunscreens
with very high SPF’s (50 or higher) are becoming more popular offering the
promise of longer protection, but in real life, they don't work any better than a SPF 15
to 30 sunscreen. That is why the new legislation is recommending that there should not be sunscreen products over SPF 50. According
to the American Academy of Dermatology, an SPF 15 product blocks 93 percent of UV rays, SPF 30 blocks 97 percent, and SPF 50 blocks 98%, but once you go up to SPF 100 that number stays at 98% FDA does not have adequate data demonstrating that products with SPF values higher than 50 provide additional protection compared to products with SPF values of 50
What’s wrong with high SPF? Theoretically, applying SPF 100 sunscreen allows beachgoers to bare their skin to sunshine a hundred times longer before causing the skin to burn. One would therefore assume that someone who would normally redden in 30 minutes could remain in the sun for 50 hours before a burn would appear. But for high-SPF sunscreens, theory and reality are two different things.Studies have found that users of high-SPF sunscreens have similar or even higher exposures to harmful UV
rays than people relying on lower SPF products as they trust the product too
much, stay in the sun longer with a single application and get
burned when the product’s
chemicals break down, wash off or rub off on clothes and towels.
Armed with a false sense
of security, they extend their time in the sun well past the point when users of
low-SPF products would. As a result, they get the same number of sunburns as
unprotected sunbathers and absorb more damaging UVA radiation, which many
high-SPF products do not effectively block. High-SPF
products contain greater
amounts of sun-blocking chemicals than low-SPFsunscreens.
These ingredients may pose
health risks when they penetrate through the skin,where they have been
linked to tissue damage and potential hormone disruption.If studies supported a
reduction in skin damage and skin cancer risk from high-SPF products, the
additional exposures might be justified. But they don’t, so
choosing sunscreens with
lower amounts of active ingredients – SPF 30 instead of SPF 70, for example – is
prudent. It is thus better to
use a sunscreen with SPF 15 to 30 and reapply more often.
The consumer needs to be
made aware that they should look for products not just with SPF but the product
must state UVA and UVB and should be Colipa tested. Colipa is the
extra critical UVA testing.
RegimA’s Sunpro Water
Resistant Sun Protector Face and Body Care has
recently received it’s SPF
certification that
declares a SPF of 25, thus offering medium protection.It is important to apply
the Sunpro correctly, ie:½ hour before going in the
sun and again when you arrive at your destination. Reapply at ½
hour intervals throughout the day as well as after swimming to ensure
optimum protection.Sunpro can also be used as
an after sun soother, providing hydration and repair to the skin.
Interesting facts:
Why does the skin Peel? Peeling
is the body’s way of ridding itself of damaged cells that are at risk of
becoming cancerous by instructing them to commit suicide.Resulting in whole layers
of damaged skin peeling
off
Why do we get sunburns?
What is sunburn ? A sunburn
occurs when the amount of exposure to the sun –or other ultraviolet light
source-exceeds melanin's ability to protect the skin ,resulting in damage to the
living skin cells. Basically the sun kills skin cells
1. Ultraviolet light from
the sun hits the layer of your skin-the cells you see and feel-are dead.Just below those is a
layer of living cells, which continuously produce new dead cells to replenish your skin. These
cells are susceptible to the UV radiation
2. In reaction to UV light
melanocytes in the skin’s basal cell later begin to produce melanin.Skin cells contain
rhodopsin, a photosensitive receptor also found in the eye used to detect light. When these
receptors sense UV light, melanin is produced. Melanin, a pigment in the skin, is what gives people
their skin, hair and eye colours.
3. Melanin protects skin
cells by absorbing radiation. Scientists believe that melanin has a limited ability to protect skin
cells DNA from UVB rays by absorbing the incoming radiation –which is a Tan
4. The body cannot produce
enough melanin to keep up with the ultraviolet exposure, so living cells in the epidermis
start dying.
5. Immune system kicks in
to clean up the dead cells, Blood flow is increased in the effected areas opening up capillary
walls so that white blood cells can come in and remove the damaged cells. The
increased blood flow makes your skin warm and red.
6. Burned area begins to
hurt-damaged cells release chemicals alerting your brain that damage has been done, activating
pain receptors to get your attention-This is a first degree burn.
7. UV rays begin damaging
lower layers of skin. Prolonged exposure can cause blistering,meaning the burn has gone
deeper than the surface layer of skin. Deep damage prompt cells in the lower layers of
skin to release fluid, protecting the tissue underneath form further damage and allowing it to heal-This is a
second degree burn
Artcle from RegimA
.
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