Sun Screen

It is tempting, for us, the Winter Challenged, to soak up the energy giving sun during the gloriously long and light filled summer days. But beware, as I have noted before, the UV rays of the sun are harmful if we stay in them too long.

So we should use suntan lotion, which used to be called "suntan lotion". But no longer. In the constant upgrading of both language and products that we subject ourselves to, boring old suntan lotion has been divided into "sun block" or "sun screen." And there is the SPF.

We have all seen bottles of sunscreen with big SPF numbers on them, 15 or 30 or 45 are the common ones, I think. The higher numbers are sure more powerful and better. Right?

Not so fast, amigo. SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor, and it measures the length of time a product protects us, not the strength of the product. It might take 15 minutes for a skin to redden without protection. SPF 15 protects us 15 times longer than without protection; or, for four hours. But we should reapply sunscreen, at whatever strength, every two hours. So for most of us, most times, SPF 15 is just fine. SPF 30 protects 30 times longer, and blocks only 4% more sunrays. 30 times longer is 8 hours, during which you should reapply three times anyway, so buy the SPF 15.