Higher SPF Means Better? - Pt 2

The Sun Cream, Sun Tan Lotion, Sunscreen and Sunblock. These terms are used interchangeably and as a generic identifier here and as part of skin whitening development, readers should take note that they do draw some distinction. Knowing which product to use is important and commonly all of them also mean to have something to do with the sun.

As most of sunscreens do not filter UVA radiation, many people using sunscreens can be exposed to levels of UVA without recognizing it. Therefore switching to broad-spectrum ( UVA / UVB ) sunscreens

" However, the U.S. FDA doesn’t support sunscreens with SPF up to 50, claiming this might cause false perceptions from consumers that anything below 50 will not be safe"

can solve this problem. Many experts tend to agree that sunscreen should be minimum of SPF 15 to avoid the skin damages from burning, wrinkling and drying due to over exposure to the UV rays - the single most destructive phenomena to human skin. However, the American FDA doesn't support sunscreens with SPF up to 50, claiming this might cause false perceptions from consumers that anything below 50 will not be safe. As SPF50 means that a person can withstand 50X amount of normal sun to burn, which is overly inflated as a sunscreen with SPF50 will still allow some UVB rays to pass through, meaning it doesn’t guarantee for no risk of cancer, wrinkling and other damaging factors if bake under the sun, according to the opinions from dermatologists.

Moreover, the protective effectiveness tends to diminish when SPF number gets higher, meaning the protection is more from 15 to 30 ( difference of 15 ) than from 30 to 45 ( difference of 15 ). To some physicians and manufacturers, they believe that higher ratings should made available for the consumer to choose. In reality, SPF of 30 is good enough to prevent sunburn.

Info - Sweating heavily, swimming, or participating in other water activities reduces the SPF because sweat or water on the skin will remove the sunscreen away. Therefore, the sunscreen needs to be re-applied more frequently during these activities