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Climate Warming And Your Skin

How have you adjusted your skin protection to include what is happening with climate warming? Will climate warming and your skin protection affect your skin health as you are getting older? Is there a place for sun blocking clothing in your skin protection plan? Updated 1-27-23

What changes have you made to your existing routines for protecting your skin and avoiding sunburn as well as skin cancer? Are you wearing a sun blocking hat? Adding sunscreen at times?

This climate warming issue is and will continue to be the elephant in the room. At least until some serious action is taken to slow the warming. When I decided to research what is happening with rising temperatures, I really tried to limit the search.

I just wanted to know what was happening to our skin when it is exposed to the sun. As the information came out of hiding, I found some I didn’t really want to know all that, it just kept tumbling out. It is difficult to cut off with just skin protection.

We do need to keep a closer eye on skin protection in the times we now live in.

What I Found

Yes, higher rates of skin cancer are being diagnosed, according to the CDC. One blessing of the technology we now have is it enables us to have access to an enormous amount of information. Trends are easier to spot and follow. Large databases provide information to back up scientific findings.

We all must protect ourselves and our families.

Australia has already lost more of the ozone layer than any other country in the world. They have been facing this stronger direct Ultra-Violet Radiation strength longer. There are several Australian companies that have made great strides in sun blocking clothing.

Sun blocking clothing is an easier way to protect our skin. It will keep you from getting sunburned. Unlike sunscreen, it doesn’t have to be reapplied every 2 hours. However, you do have to keep your sunblocking clothing on your body.

Too little for too long is allowing more of us to reach the point of serious sun damage that is leading to skin cancer stage.

During this time of growing awareness about skin protection and how to protect ourselves from the sun, we are developing skin cancer at faster rates all along.

Manufacturers in the sun blocking clothing market are finding all kinds of blends of different fibers to make into clothing to protect our skin. They are presenting us with choices that are proven safe in actual testing. Not clothing that “should” protect your skin.

Working with the special weaving techniques and finishes that are now available for use is changing the sun protection clothing’s ability to protect, and to be comfortable.

The fabric now available for sun blocking is lightweight and beautiful. The garments are easy to care for and easy to style into clothing that can protect you from the sun. Sun blocking clothing has come a long way and is a welcome surprise for helping us protect our skin.

My denim shirt will protect me from the sun. But it won’t be lightweight and cool. The progress in stylish and attractive clothing will cause you to think about adding attractive sun blocking clothing to your closet.

The Warming Of Our Climate

There is so much information out there.

Information, acquired in actual active practice while treating and seeing kids documents the way the disappearing Ozone layer is affecting children’s skin today. With the help of good records of what is happening, and how we can expect things to be in the future, we can prepare better.

We must help our children learn to protect themselves from the damaging rays of the sun. The link below will give you some good guidelines for protecting your family’s skin from the sun shared by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

How To Help

The best way to make sure our kids are getting the sun protection they need is to set a good example.

That means:

  • Wearing sunscreen -Both SPF 15 and 30 have proved to protect our skin during sun exposure. However, if you plan to be out for longer than thirty minutes, you will need to use sunscreen with a wide spectrum, and an SPF of at least 30, or 50 is better.
  • Remembering to reapply as the directions state will also help keep your sunscreen able to continue protecting your skin.
  • Apply your sunscreen 15 minutes before sun exposure. Then reapply again every 2 hours and after being in the water or sweating a lot. Sweat or water will break down your protection and let your skin sunburn. Reapply often.

Wearing sun blocking clothing will further protect your skin when you are in the direct sun, between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM. Sun Blocking clothing has been the best thing we have had to work with for years.

As young kids, we just played in the sun and water. As we got a bit older into the years we wanted to have tan skin, covering your skin from the sun was never a consideration.

Reaching the time that we have fallen in love with tanned bodies, we thought to heck with your skin health.

This left skin protection out of the loop and ignored. Covering up? Who wants to wear clothing when your friends are running around in bathing suits? You want to show off your tan too.

You, Climate Warming, And Your Skin

Your parents and grandparents may have been able to be out in the direct sun’s rays throughout their lives. And maybe they escaped skin cancer. They may have worked outside and if they did they covered up well. Brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts.

They didn’t wear shirts without collars as we do now. Trends in our clothing have made tee-shirt necks accepted work-ware. That leaves the back of your neck uncovered. This is one of the body locations that is most diagnosed with skin cancer. All kinds of things make different vulnerable areas that we often forget.

Sun blocking clothing can be any kind of clothing that provides a layer of protection between you and the sun. Your denim long-sleeved shirt will do a great job of keeping the sun off your skin. It is tightly woven with a darker color. Fits the description for sun blocking clothing.

Here is the issue, you won’t like wearing that denim shirt with the sleeves rolled down, and the collar turned up to keep off the sun Not while everyone else is hanging out in their swimwear. You want to look “cool!’

I get it, I want to look cool too.

Sun Blocking Clothing

This is where sun-blocking clothing enters. The special fabrics and finishing methods make clothing with the ability to block the sun and still be something you will want to wear.

I enjoy the way the specially designed long-sleeve comes over the top of my hand. The specially designed holes for my fingers. The hood to pull up over my head. All work well to protect my skin from the sun.

Fabric that is knitted with a weave that protects me. Soft and comfortable to feel. It is not stiff and scratchy.

A shirt I will wear to hang out with friends and family. What about the trusty denim one? Probably not.

Sunscreen Protection

You must also use sunscreen with your sun blocking clothing. Your body is exposed to more sun every year as our planet warms. That sunscreen bottle/tube should be handy. Everyone must be on their toes for protecting their skin from overexposure.

As our ozone thins and disappears, you will be left with less protection. The methods that have helped take care of you through the ages are disappearing. You must be ready for the changes, as well as teach your children to take care of themselves.

The government is slowly moving to improve the products you have to protect your skin from the sun. The sunscreen formulas are getting new regulations. These regulations are removing the chemicals that cause the mutations that affect your hormones and those of your children. Many men are victims of low sperm count in today’s world. This is not just a female issue.

Give some thought to how you will work with your skin protection program in the future. As Climate Warming And Your Skin react to each other, have a plan.

Learn How To Protect Your Skin when using a tanning nasal mist.
Sami’s Take On Climate Warming And Your Skin

While Climate warming has not really been on my radar, it should have been. When my kids were so young, I just let them be in the sun as much as they wanted. Even sent them out to play, (Yes back when we did this) without sun blocking clothing or sunscreen.

No sunglasses, no sun hat, not even a sun blocking, loose-fitting long-sleeve shirt! Often no shirt. Any child growing up in west Texas and eastern New Mexico needs protection from the sun. These fair-skinned kids with blue and green eyes? Strawberry blonde? You get the picture!

So, yes as adults they are paying for their sunburns. Probably one or more a year! Every year! They didn’t have dappled shade for playing, they had direct sun.

Can you help your kids have fewer chances of skin cancer? Teach them to cover their skin and protect themselves from too much sun.

Plan play times in the mornings before 10 AM and after 4 PM. Help the develop better habits for these play times. Make sure they wear sun hats and sunglasses. Help them with loose-fitting long-sleeve shirts of thick tee-shirt fabric, or tightly woven fabrics that you can’t see through.

Remind them that any shirt or cover or hat is better than no hat. We must make protecting our skin a real thing. Teach your kids that even though some kids may not wear sun blocking clothing when playing in the sun that your family does. Your family protects their skin.

Why have I shared how little effort I made to keep my kid’s skin covered? I hope that you learn from my mistakes.

Get a good sun protection plan going for your family. That Ozone is melting fast!

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