How to Buy The Best Sunscreen

With summer rapidly approaching, stocking up on sunscreen lotions is a necessary purchase. New evidence has found that it's not only the UVB rays from the sun that cause cancer, but, UVA rays are also dangerous. Buying and applying the correct sunscreen is crucial to your future skin health.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Buying the best sunscreen starts with understanding the protection rating of sunscreens. The sun throws off ultraviolet (UV) light which has 2 main components: UVB light is the light than burns our skin and causes obvious damage in red sunburns. UVA light is also produced and causes deeper skin damage, resulting in wrinkled, leathery skin. Sunscreens must protect against both UVA and UVB rays (in the past, it was believed that only UVB rays were dangerous).

2. 
    
   Don't rely on a shady tree to protect your from damaging sun rays.

   Understanding the Sun Protection Factor (SPF) number of a sunscreen and knowing how long it takes you to burn without sunscreen will help select the best sunscreen to protect yourself against UVA and UVB rays. To determine how long you can remain in the sun with sunscreen, use the following formula:
   
   Time it takes you to burn without sunscreen x SPF factor = minutes you can probably remain in the sun.
   
   For example, if you know you normally burn in 10 minutes without sunscreen, selecting a sunscreen with an SPF of 8 will allow you to stay in the sun 80 minutes.

3. Buy sunscreens which say 'broad spectrum' on the front. These sunscreen lotions will screen out the UVA and UVB ray from the sun. In the future, the FDA is going to step in and make sunscreen manufacturers put 2 ratings on the bottles, one for UVA and one for UVB but we're probably a few years away from this necessary consumer information.

4. The FDA has asked that sunscreen manufacturers stop putting SPF numbers higher than 30 on sunscreen lotions - this is because absorption of the suns rays does not increase exponentially with a higher SPF, thereby giving us a false sense of security as we continue to absorb those damaging UVA and UVB rays. For example, an SPF of 2 gives 50% protection, SPF of 40 gives only 70%, and SPF of 80 gives 87.5% So, a higher SPF number may protect you from burning but the UVA and UVB rays are still doing damage.

Tips & Warnings

• Apply sunscreens every 2 hours and apply more than you think you need. Studies have shown we typically apply 1/2 amount recommended.
• Cover up with clothes during the hottest parts of the day.
• Look for avobenzone and oxybenzone ingredients in any sunscreen. These protect against the UVA rays.

Resources

• How to Find Skin Care Products For A Senior Citizen
• Use that sunscreen on a cheap cruise!
• View my eHow profile
• More articles by me
• View my blog documenting travels with my 92 year old mama

[magnadea]

on 6/4/2009 Great tips on how to buy the best sunscreen. Living in the sunbelt most of my life I certainly understand the importance of this. Unfortunately we didn't have the same kind of products and information 30 or 40 years ago. Thanks! 5*

[sonni57]

on 5/6/2009 It's that time of year to buy sunscreen thanks for the good advice.