Hi my name is Caity and I'm the educator here at Badger.
Today we are with Rebecca Hamilton.
She's our Vice President of Research and Development and is one of Badger Bill's daughters.
Thanks for joining us today.
Thanks for having me.
Today we're going to talk about UBA and UVB rays.
So Rebecca, can you tell us the difference
between UVA and UVB rays and why it's important
to know that.
Absolutely.
So UVA and UVB rays have different wavelengths.
That means that the UVA with a longer wavelength penetrates more deeply than UVB which has
a shorter wavelength.
One way to think about that is UVA for aging and UVB for burn and that's because the UVB
contributes to the surface level sunburn whereas the UVA contributes toward premature skin
aging that might be associated with sun.
Both of them can contribute to skin cancer.
Thanks.
What kind of active ingredients protect from
UVA and UVB rays?
And is there one in particular that we should
be looking for?
Funny you should say that.
In fact there is.
Zinc oxide is the one active ingredient that
really thoroughly protects against both UVA and UVB.
And, what's really neat about zinc oxide is
that for most active ingredients they have
excellent protection in one part of either
the UVA or UVB range, and so what you'll see
in the protection is these little mountains
and the zinc oxide actually gives you even
protection across both, fairly even protection.
Titanium dioxide also does protect against both
UVA and UVB but it protects more in the UVB
and not as much in the UVA.
Hmm.
So as a wrap up, what should customers be
looking for on a sunscreen when they're wanting
to have protection from both of these rays?
The best thing to look for is 'broad spectrum'.
The SPF number on a sunscreen actually only
refers to the protection for UVB and so when
you see 'broad spectrum' that means that it
protects both against UVA and UVB.
Thanks for joining us Rebecca.
Thanks for having me.
