Female Truck Drivers “How To Protect Your Skin” 5 Tips can help you protect your skin from the sun while driving.
As a truck driver, your skin receives so much exposure to the sun. For however many hours of daylight, you are driving. Whether cross-country or short-haul, there are many hours of sunlight exposure during your workday.
Summer and winter you are behind that windshield. Yes, it filters out some, but, not enough for that many hours. You are going to require care.
Our sun is full of hidden dangers. If you are a female with a CDL trucking job, you have to be aware of those dangers.
The sun may feel nice beaming on your face, but when it blazes through the windshield, it brings added risks. Sunscreen, sun masks, sun hats, sunglasses, sun blocking clothing, sun gloves, sun sleeves, and being aware of time passing will protect your skin.
Actual Life Story Of A Female Truck Driver
“Candace Marley, a friend to ‘Real Women in Trucking,’ knows the risks of sun exposure well.
Her husband, Michael Marley, got the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma, on his face. He had it removed in 2003 and went on with his life, serving in the Army then living out his boyhood dream of becoming a truck driver.
But it wasn’t meant to last. Six years later, Michael’s cancer returned. Only this time, the melanoma had spread to his chest cavity. Within seven months of the cancer’s return, he died at age 37.”
“Mike got skin cancer from long-term sun exposure,” says Candace, who got a CDL trucking job herself when Mike became too ill to work. “He was a mechanic in the Army and a truck driver, so every single day he was being exposed to the sun’s rays. And let me tell you, melanoma is a very fast killer.”
Melanoma is a deadly form of skin cancer. There are other forms of skin cancer that can often be quickly removed and are not deadly. However, accumulated exposure to the sun is the main cause of skin cancer, even melanoma.
For some people, one exposure is all it takes to set up the conditions for the cancers of the skin. Once the conditions are there, each repeated exposure will put you at that much higher risk.
Skin Disorders That Require Caution
Because I was completely unaware of the complexity of the “other” skin issues besides skin cancer, I wanted to help let others know that there are damgers besides sunburn.
(Skip down to the First hint if you already know about these skin conditions.)
There are other skin diseases that too much sun exposure will cause to flare up and get worse as well. The autoimmune diseases that show up after excess sun exposure will often remain with you for the rest of your life.
Primary immunodeficiency (PI) is a term used to describe more than 350 disorders. Research is finding that these conditions can exist in our bodies without out knowledge.
While they all have differences, the one thing these disorders all have in common? They cause your immune system to not work properly. Your immune system may be still working but at a lowered strength. Often making it harder to fight off infections.
So, a recap here, PI is a chronic disorder that causes your immune system to work poorly.
This leads to an increased chance of an infection. And because the types of infections can vary, diagnosing PI can be difficult.
Wikipedia gives this description:
Immunodeficiency, is a state in which the immune system‘s ability to fight infectious diseases and cancer is compromised or entirely absent.
Most cases are acquired (“secondary”) due to extrinsic factors that affect the patient’s immune system. Examples of these extrinsic factors include HIV infection and environmental factors, such as nutrition.[1] Immunocompromisation may also be due to genetic diseases/flaws such as SCID.
A Word About What Primary Immunodeficiency Is Not
Don’t confuse Primary immunodeficiency with autoimmune disorders or secondary immunodeficiencies.
In an autoimmune disorder (like rheumatoid arthritis or Type 1 diabetes), the immune system gets confused and attacks the body.
With secondary immunodeficiency, something else causes the immune system to not work right, like another infection or medical treatment (such as chemotherapy). The most common type of secondary immunodeficiency is AIDS, which is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
With primary immunodeficiency, a part of the immune system is either missing or not working correctly. Primary immunodeficiency diseases are mainly genetic defects that may be passed down in families.
Education Is Imoportant
Keep your eye out for more information about the conditions that research is finding respond with flares when you are exposed to too much sun.
These conditions may not alert you to there presence until other issues develop. Lupus is one that comes to mind for me. My sister-in-law has to be very cautious about too much sun.
Her lupus can seem dormant, often riding in the car for a couple of hours will cause a severe onset of all the symptoms. They can sometime last several weeks. She does try to avoid the sun, but does allow herself 10 or so minutes a few days a week.
Now, Let’s Get Into Female Truck Drivers “How To Protect Your Skin”
1. Use Only Quality Sunscreen
All sunscreens are not created equal.
Chemical UV filters like octinoxate and oxybenzone reportedly cause hormonal changes in animals. One significant animal study says that the inactive ingredient retinyl palmitate may become cancer-causing when exposed to light?
Pay attention to the ingredients on labels when are you shopping for sunscreen. Check your label on the product you buy.
Take the time to find the right sunscreen will help get you on a strong path of sun protection this summer. However, you can’t quit as the summer fades, in your profession, winters pose the same dangers.
SPF 30, SPF 50+ along with the words wide-spectrum.
Wide-spectrum is what assures you there is protection from early aging in the products you are using. This a crucial part of quality sunscreen. Don’t forget it. Keep one handy to add during the day.
2. Apply enough sunscreen
Consumer Reports magazine recommends applying sunscreen 15 to 30 minutes before going outside. For liquid sunscreens, it recommends using 1 teaspoon of sunscreen for each part of your body.
Working with our family we are finding that we all were guilty of not using enough sunscreen to do the job. Make sure to cover your exposed parts thoroughly.
Remember to reapply sunscreen every two hours. As well as after sweating or swimming.
When we travel across country, we try to use a good sun block lotion or cream. Getting enough on the start is the secret for those who find the product a bit difficult.
Getting a good coat on allows easier reapplications on your nose, your hands, or wherever you rub off the product. Kids are wiggle worms, and having them covered in sun blocking clothing makes paying attention to faces and hands easier.
All these are secrets I wish I had know when my family was young. However, we didn’t.
3. Wear Clothes To Protect Your Skin From The Sun.
Truck driving jobs don’t have the options of staying in the shade. Then there is the fact that the sun is magnified when it shines through the window, notes a female driver who is 66 years old and has been driving for 47 years.
“The left side of my body looks like it belongs to an 80-year-old woman, the right side of my body looks like it belongs to a 66-year-old woman,” she says. “It’s skin damage, very definitely.” Drivers should protect themselves by wearing long sleeves and long pants made from tightly woven fabric. Outdoors, add a hat to the mix.
The options for wide-spectrum sunscreen is important for anyone who has this much exposure to the sun’s rays. We are becoming enlightened, and accepting the information that we have to protect ourselves. The main problem now?
Mental Blocks! Peole are still lovers of tan skin. That is so deadly. As more education makes usaware, hopefully we will realize that a tan body is more dangerous than smoking.
4. UV Shield On The Driver’s Side Window.
One of the more positive things a female truck driver can do is add a UVA-filtering window film to the drivers side of the truck. This can help prevent skin damage, filtering out more than 99 percent of UVA and UVB rays while maintaining visibility.
Tinted window film is illegal in some states. Be sure you get a shield that is not tinted.
Now, I am not a truck driver, but as many hours as we spend in our vehicles, a UV shielf would be good sun protection for anyone. I admit that my hours are limited.
People in my part of central Texas are accustomed to a 45 minute drive to the grocery store. 45minutes home, that is 1 1/2 hours at least once if not more every week.
4 weeks a month = 6 hours a month. 12 months in the year =72 hours a year just for grocery shopping for our family. That amount accumulates.
For some of us, this is helpful information for protecting our skin. However, you younger people, you can start protecting your skin from the UV rays, and have healthier skin with less early aging and fewer risks for skin cancer. Will you do it for yourself?
5. Wear A Sunsleeve Over Your Driving Arm
If pro golfers, both female and male can wear these sleeves, you can too. Fishermen, cycle riders, hikers. Everyone is using the protections of sun sleeves. They are available in many places including Walmart.
With the sun shining year-round, even on cloudy days you are protected. When there’s snow on the ground, that reflection is magnified, too. As truck drivers, you are exposed to UV rays all day long.
A loose fitting long sleeve shirt, your sunglasses as well as your sun hat will protect you. Along with a wide spectrum sunscreen of 50 you will be able to have healthier skin with less accumulative damage through life.
Protecting your skin from the sun is a lifestyle choice. Will you make healthier choices?
Sami’s Take On Female Truck Drivers “How To Protect Your Skin” 5 Tips
Women in the truck driving profession should take the time to protect themselves. The hours of sun exposure will add up so fast. That is such a challenge. Get in the habit in protecting your skin.
Yes, it will mean some changes, but just check out the females you know who have driving for many years. Ask about their skin care habits. I think that wearing sun blocking clothing is the easiest way to go.
However, I don’t drive a truck. Maybe it is just to hard to do it all. But could you do part of the suggestions? I do remember seeing a young lady whose parents were friends of my parents.
She was Miss Colorado sometime in the late ’50’s I think Mom said. When I saw her, she looked like leather. I asked mom about her. Mom shared that she had spent lots of time vacationing in the tropics. I didn’t know about tropical vacations, sun damage on our skin, all the perals that would come along later.
To much information exists to warn us. We have to be careful.