Clothing That Can Protect You From Skin Cancer

June 13, 2007 — -- The official start of summer is less than two weeks away and families will spend more time in the sun. We all know it's important to protect ourselves from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays, and now there are many clothes with labels claiming to offer UV protection.

The Good Housekeeping Research Institute's Textiles Department wondered whether the UV claims were accurate, so it put the clothing to the test.

Most clothes offer very little protection from UV rays. For instance, a white cotton T-shirt has the equivalent sun protection factor (SPF) of 5 to 7. (Remember: SPF ratings only pertain the protection from UVB rays, which cause burns, and not UVA rays, which penetrate the skin and cause wrinkles.) And when a T-shirt is wet, it loses about a third of its sun protection.

Some clothes, however, claim to have extra UV protection. There is no government standard set to define UV-protective clothing, but the industry does have voluntary standards. According to those regulations, a clothing maker can't claim a garment is UV-protective unless its Ultraviolet Protection Factor (or UPF) score (located on the item's tag) falls on the following scale:
15 to 24: Good UV Protection
25 to 39: Very Good Protection
40 or higher: Excellent Protection

But Good Housekeeping says those claims aren't as closely monitored as they would be if compliance with the rules were mandatory. So some companies may be labeling their clothes inaccurately.

Good Housekeeping sent 15 items from nine brands to an independent laboratory, Vartest Laboratories in New York City. Following industry standards, each piece was evaluated twice: once before washing, then again after 40 washes and other treatments, measuring how much ultraviolet light passed through the fabrics.

Wear a hat, long-sleeved shirt and long pants when you're in the sun.

Choose tightly woven materials for the best protection from the sun.

Apply sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15 and reapply at least every two hours.

Remember to wear sunscreen even when it's overcast.

Wear sunglases that block at least 99 percent of UV radiation.