What’s the difference between a regular cotton tee and a UPF tee?
A cotton tee and a UPF tee both cover your body and shield you from the sun. But have you ever wondered about the difference between the 2, especially regarding the level of sun protection?
Read on to find out.
UVA rays penetrate our skin deeply and are associated with cancer including melanoma and skin aging. UVB rays are the main cause of sun burn and non-melanoma skin cancers like squamous cell carcinoma. Therefore, it is essential to protect our skin from the sun when going outdoors especially in warm summer months. Clothing is one such method of protection.
What exactly is a UPF tee?
UPF stands for Ultra Violet Protection Factor. A UPF rating can be given to a piece of clothing. This rating identifies how much of UV rays from the sun can get through this material.
UPF indicates protection from both UVA and UVB. A UPF rating of 30-49 offers very good protection while UPF 50+ is excellent when selecting a UPF tee. For example let’s say a UPF tee (in other words UV protective tee shirt) has a rating of UPF50.
This means that only 1/50th of UV radiation from the sun can penetrate the fabric and reach your skin. The material of the UPF tee will block 98% of the harmful sun rays and allow only 2% to pass. It will reduce the UV radiation exposure of your skin 50 times.
What makes a UPF tee more superior when compared to a regular cotton tee?
Cotton tees will protect your skin only to a small extent. It will allow a certain amount of UV rays to pass through the fabric. If you hold up a cotton tee to the sun, you will see some light filtering through the material. This indicates that the cotton fabric has a UPF rating which is relatively low. Next hold a UPF tee up to the sun. You will rarely see light passing through, because a high UPF rated tee has a tighter weave of fabric. This will almost not allow any visible light to pass through, which means it has a higher UV protection.
A cotton tee, just like many other summer clothes has a very low UPF rating, which is usually around 10. Skin Cancer Foundation grants the seal of recommendation to fabrics and other products that meet the criteria for safe and effective sun protection.
To get this seal, a fabric should have at least UPF 30 rating. Therefore, a regular cotton tee is not considered a safe and effective clothing for UV protection as it is not been granted this seal by the Skin Cancer Foundation.
When manufacturing most UPF tees, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are coated on to the material to bolster the clothing’s UV blocking abilities. Even after many washes, most of the UV blocking properties will retain. But if a UPF tee is made of nylon or polyester, they retain this ability throughout especially if you take good care of your tee. If your cotton tee has thin fibers with loose weave, much more rays will enter through the tee, harming your skin.
The only disadvantage of a UPF tee when comparing the 2 items is that a UPF tee is fairly expensive when compared to a regular cotton tee. However, a UPF tee is the perfect clothing for providing the necessary protection while keeping you cool and comfortable.
Sun protective clothing is a safe way to keep harmful UV rays at bay. Therefore a specialized UPF tee will be essential in warm summer months to protect your skin from harmful sun rays especially if you spend a lot of time outdoors. Whenever you pick summer clothes, always look for UPF labelling. Go for a UPF tee than just a regular cotton tee.