Overexposure to the sun may lead to sun spots on the skin, and eventually skin cancer. The Cancer Council’s “Slip, slop, slap” campaign is one of the most successful in Australian advertising history and has become part of Australian contemporary language. “Slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat” was the original campaign in the early 1980s, and was more recently extended to include “seeking shade” and “sliding on sunglasses” too. By following these five precautionary rules, along with sensible behavioural choices like planning the walk to avoid excessive sun exposure and having a well-shaded lunch spot, you are more likely to protect your skin from harmful damage.
A challenge every bushwalker faces is how to cover up from the sun while being comfortable. Being sun safe doesn’t necessarily mean you have to wear thick, bulky clothes; there are cool and breathable fabrics that offer UV protection for many outdoor activities. Clothing provides protection from the sun by the fabric blocking, scattering and/or absorbing harmful radiation. A long sleeve shirt and long pants give protection to arms and legs, and collared shirts somewhat protect the neck.
Clothing with denser fabrics such as cotton, linen, hemp, polyester, nylon, spandex and polypropylene are more effective at blocking, scattering and/or absorbing harmful radiation than lighter fabrics. One study suggests that a simple see-through test is not a valid test of UV penetration. The reason is that in some materials visible light is scattered, but UV light can still penetrate. Clothing was
originally given a sun protection factor (SPF) rating based on a measure of how long it takes for a person’s skin to burn under the material. More recently, ultraviolet protection factor (UPF) ratings were introduced giving an indication of how well a piece of fabric can block UV light. UPF ratings are now considered a more reliable measure of a fabric’s protection against UV light since different skin types burn at different rates.
In practical terms, most conventional clothing provides moderate sun protection. A study found that around three-quarters of clothing regularly worn by the general public has protection equivalent to (or more than) that of sunscreen with a SPF 15 rating. However, as bushwalking sun exposure is generally higher than in many other outdoor activities, it may be worth considering clothing that has a certified protection rating. Clothing with a high protection rating often works better than sunscreen because clothing, unlike sunscreen, stays on over time.
If you’re like us, you don’t want anything to stop you from enjoying a beautiful day outdoors, especially the sun. But, with a thinning ozone layer, we need to be proactive in the fight against skin damage and minimise the amount of direct exposure we receive.
Bushwalk
