Sun Protection
The primary factor driving our mission to get hats on everyone is the growing prevalence of skin cancer occurrence across the world.
Being in sunlight is good for both our physical and mental health but we must also recognise that long-term overexposure leads to skin photoaging and skin cancers.
In Australia, two in three people will have experienced skin cancer by the time they are 70 years old.
The Wala Hat™ has been designed to provide comprehensive sun protection for your face, eyes, ears, cheeks, neck, and shoulders.
The Sunguard 7CM brim* provides complete coverage for your head and around 70% of your shoulders. The Sports 5CM brim reduces the coverage area for your shoulders but still provides effective short-term protection for those areas most prone to skin cancers – nose, cheeks, ears, and neck.
The Sunguard 7CM
(The Sunguard brim size can be as wide as 7.6CM as determined by the wearer’s head size)
The Sports 5CM
Sun Exposure
Skin damage from sun exposure is caused by ultraviolet radiation (UV). The wavelengths of UV radiation fall between those of visible light and x-rays.
Three different wavelengths of UV light are produced by the sun. UVA has the longest and penetrates the skin most deeply, then UVB, is slightly shorter, affecting skin at mid-level, and then UVC, which is normally blocked by the ozone layer.
Your skin has three layers – the epidermis – the outermost layer that provides a protective physical barrier, the dermis or middle layer lies directly below and is much thicker than the epidermis and contains collagen, blood vessels, lymph nodes, nerves, hair follicles and glands and then the deepest layer – the hypodermis or subcutaneous tissue that contains fat and blood vessels, nutrient layers and provides cushioning for your muscles and bones. UV rays affect each layer in different ways.
- UVB rays penetrate the epidermis, and the immediate result of their damage is a sunburn. UVA has the longest range of wavelengths and about 95% of the UV radiation that reaches the earth’s surface is UVA. Both UVA & UVB are responsible for skin cancers that are both treatable and life-threatening as in the case of melanoma.
- The stratospheric ozone layer – earth’s primary mechanism for blocking biologically damaging UVA and UVB radiation from reaching us, has been depleted from the long-term use of damaging chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s). Even with an international treaty called the Montreal Protocol of 1987 which banned these compounds, it is not expected that the normal ozone levels experienced before 1970 will return until at least 2050.
- Magnifying this issue is research showing that climate change from growing greenhouse gas emissions along with increasing temperatures corresponds to an increase in UV radiation levels during the day so the higher rates of skin cancer will continue within our communities unless we actively manage our exposure.
So we have arrived at a time where if you are outside in full sun for longer than 15 minutes you should be sun protected!
Additional Resources:
- The amount of UV exposure a person gets depends on the strength of the rays, the length of time the skin is exposed, and whether the skin is protected with clothing or sunscreen.
- The UV level is affected by a number of factors including the time of day, time of year, cloud cover, altitude, proximity to the equator, scattering and reflection so many countries provide localised information
Copyright is recognized for skin profile image created by Harriet Greenfield and held by Harvard Health Publishing