Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is essential to the body. It helps stimulate vitamin D production, which has a significant role in enhancing the person’s general well-being. It plays a vital function in increasing calcium and phosphorus absorption from food and has a crucial role in blood cell formation, skeletal development, and immune function.
However, despite the sun’s rays providing health benefits to people, excessive exposure to UV radiation can also cause significant problems for individuals.
Adverse Effects of Excessive Exposure to UV Rays
Excessive exposure to UV radiation is seen as the primary cause of skin cancer. The main types of UV rays that can affect your skin are UVA rays and UVB rays. While UVB rays have slightly more energy and are thought to cause most skin cancers than UVA rays, both types of UV rays can damage the skin and cause skin cancer.
Aside from skin cancer, exposure to excessive UV light exposure can also have other effects on the skin. It can cause sunburn, premature ageing of the skin, freckles and solar brown spots (lentigines), and pigmented moles (melanocytic naevi). It can also lead to solar keratosis, which is the most common skin condition caused by sun damage.
Exposure to UV rays can also have detrimental effects on the eye. They can cause the cornea (which covers the front portion of the eye) to become inflamed or burned and impair your vision due to the formation of cataracts (clouding of the eye’s lens) or pterygium (tissue growth on the eye’s surface).
Furthermore, UV rays can also weaken your immune system, suppressing some of your body’s immune responses. With this, the body will face challenges in fending infections. Exposure to UV rays may also cause vaccines to become less effective and reduce the body’s defences against skin cancer.
Ways to Protect Yourself from these Risks
Most people tend to apply or wear sun protection only when they spend a day at the pool or beach. But this should not be the case. It is crucial to think of sun protection every time you are in the sun. Here are some ways to limit your exposure to UV rays and protect yourself from risks:
Clothing and Hats
The best form of protection from UV rays is to wear loose-fitting, closely woven fabrics that cast a dense shadow when held up to the light. It is also better to wear a hat to protect the top of the head and provide shade for the face and neck, which are the sites where skin cancers commonly occur.
Sunglasses
Wearing UV attenuating sunglasses can help you protect the delicate skin around the eyes as well as the eyes themselves.
Besides sunglasses, you can also use eyeglasses and contact lenses that provide protection against UV rays. However, despite some brands now offering eyeglasses and lenses with UV protection, do not assume that this is true for every lens unless clearly stated on the product label. Thus, when buying glasses or lenses, you must make sure to check the label or confirm it with an eye care professional.
Sunscreen
You can protect your skin from the sun’s UV rays by applying sunscreen. However, despite protecting against risks, it is crucial to understand that sunscreens should not be thought of as the first line of defence. Instead, it should be considered as an additional part of your skin cancer protection plan. This is because sunscreens only filter UV rays; hence, these do not block all of them.
Various face and skincare products, such as lotions, creams, gels, ointments, lip balms, and sprays, can provide sun protection if they have sunscreen properties. But, before purchasing your sunscreen, be sure to read its label.
In the UK, the Boots star rating system is a propriety in vitro method used to describe the ratio of UVA to UVB protection offered by sunscreen products. The star rating for sunscreen products ranges from 0 to 5, with 5 being the highest star rating. A sunscreen product with a UVA rating of 5 indicates that UVA protection achieves more than 90% UVB protection.
Another factor to look for in the product label is the sun protection factor (SPF), indicating the level of UVB protection a sunscreen product provides. SPFs can range from 2 to 50+, with 50+ providing the most UVB protection.
Generally, it is recommended to use sunscreens with a minimum SPF of 15 and a UVA rating of 4 or 5 stars.
Window Tints
Installing window tints on the glass window of your car or home can help mitigate adverse health risks from excessive exposure to the sun’s rays. Your dyes will block harmful UV rays from entering your vehicle and home, shielding not only their interior from cracking or fading but also protecting you from possible skin damage.
If you want a trusted and reliable company that offers window tinting in Luton and other UK locations, you could always go to Global Tint UK. If you wish for a free quote today, you can always contact us at 0800-158-8005. You may also visit our website at www.globaltint.co.uk to learn more about our services.