The silent UVA

Abstract

The effects of UVA on the skin are well documented in the literature.

Sunscreens were originally developed to protect against erythema and consequently against UVB. Even today, most sunscreens on the market provide much higher UVB than UVA protection.

By looking at the transmission profile of 3 different sunscreens on the market and making a theoretical calculation, we show that users in the past and even today are being exposed to a huge amount of UVA in a silent way.

This is what we define as silent UVA.

There is a need to develop a new generation of sunscreens with higher UVA protection to reduce Silent UVA exposure.