Has the sun protection factor had its day?
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Numerical indicators of sun protection on sunscreen packaging can cause more confusion than clarity in users and this system should be abandoned in favour of terms such as 'low', 'medium' and 'high' protection, suggests Professor Brian Diffey from Newcastle General Hospital in this week's BMJ.
Professor Diffey argues that the numerical indicators are popularly interpreted as how much longer skin covered with sunscreen takes to burn and this encourages prolonged exposure to the sun. Even those people who use high factor sunscreens get sunburnt, says Diffey, but this is because they do not apply enough sunscreen. If sunscreens were applied properly, there would be no need for sun protection factors higher than 15 to prevent sunburn, argues the author.
He concludes that to overcome the confusion caused by the numerical sun protection factors a better system of labelling would be 'low', 'medium', 'high' or 'ultrahigh' - whereby children and people in strong sunshine for many hours use high or ultrahigh protection sunscreen and those who wish to tan or are in shady areas might prefer medium or low protection products. This, says Diffey, would shift the focus more to protection rather than encouraging prolonged exposure to sunlight.
Contact:
Professor Brian Diffey, Regional Medical Physics Department, Newcastle General Hospital
Tel: +44 (0)191 273 1577
b.l.diffey@ncl.ac.uk