What is Paint Protection Film and why do I need it?
A.
Paint protection film, or "clear bra" as it is sometimes known, is one of the best ways to preserve the showroom quality finish on your vehicle. The tough, durable, virtually invisible urethane film will keep your vehicle looking newer longer, without changing the design features or color, by creating a barrier and protecting vulnerable areas such as front bumpers, hoods, side mirrors, door handle cavities, door edges, rocker panels, and rear fender panels. Preserving the finish of your vehicle with paint protection film (PPF) keeps your vehicle looking newer longer, and can enhance the resale value of your vehicle in the future.
Q.
How does Scotchgard™ Paint Protection Film Pro Series compare to other paint protection films on the market today?
A.
Scotchgard Pro Series construction provides many features, advantages and benefits over other films. In addition, when you buy film from 3M you know you are buying a recognized brand from a trusted company with staying power.
Exceptional clarity: Scotchgard Pro Series has low orange peel, making it one of the clearest films in the industry and virtually invisible on the vehicle.
Unrivaled stain and scratch resistance: The revolutionary clear coat technology produces exceptional stain and scratch resistance, making it easier to clean and harder to scratch, ensuring that it keeps the vehicle looking newer, longer.
Self healing properties: Innovative technology allows minor scratches to disappear by themselves, keeping the film and your vehicle finish looking new.
Excellent durability: The new formula for the Scotchgard Pro Series has superior resistance to yellowing and cracking, ensuring that your vehicle finish retains the showroom quality, color and design features.
Where can I put Paint Protection Film on my vehicle?
A.
Paint Protection Film can be professionally installed anywhere you want to protect your vehicle finish from scratches, chips, stains and other damaging elements. Scotchgard™ Paint Protection Film Pro Series protects:
Rocker panels from sand and stones kicked up by tires
Trunk ledges from golf clubs, luggage and strollers
Hoods, bumpers and mirror backs from flying gravel, bug acids and tar
Door handle cavities and door edges from rings, keys, belt buckles and purses
Full hoods, trunks and roofs from bird droppings and tree sap
Q.
Can I install Scotchgard Pro Series film myself?
A.
3M strongly recommends that Scotchgard film be installed by a 3M Certified Installer. They have the training and experience to make sure you receive an installation that is fit perfectly to your vehicle. In addition, the warranty is valid only if the film is installed by a Certified Installer.
Q.
What is the warranty for Scotchgard™ Paint Protection Film Pro Series?
A.
Our comprehensive warranty for Scotchgard Pro Series film in the United States and Canada is 7 years from the date of purchase, and includes coverage against defects, yellowing, bubbling and cracking. Visit our website at 3M.com/paint protection film for more details and to see the full warranty disclosure.
Q.
What is the pricing for the new Scotchgard Pro Series film?
A.
Pricing varies depending upon the area covered on your vehicle and your local market. Find a 3M Certified Installer in your area for a free quote.
Q.
Scotchgard Pro Series Film removable?
A.
Yes. The film is intended to be permanent, but can be removed without damage to the finish. 3M recommends that you visit a 3M Certified installer to have the film removed properly.
Q.
Where can I buy Scotchgard Pro Series Film?
A.
The film can be purchased and installed by one of our 3M Certified Installers. You can locate an installer in your area by calling 1-800-328-1684, or visit the Where to Buy section of our website.
Q.
What if I cannot find a Certified Installer in my area?
A.
Please call 1-800-328-1684 and 3M can help arrange an installation for you.
Q.
Where can I get additional information about the Scotchgard Pro Series Film?
A.
Visit our website at 3M.com/paint protection film for additional information, including how to find a 3M Certified Installer in your area.
Choosing a window tint shop can be confusing. “Best Price” “No Bubbles” “20 Years in Business”… How do you know which shop to choose? There are major differences between tint shops and you don’t want to make a bad investment. After all, window tint is something that you have to live with for years to come. It’s either going to make you proud every time you look at it or make you sick! Hopefully after reading this post, you will have the tools you need to make an educated decision. (Editor’s note: I have provided links throughout this post to illustrate what you should be looking for.)
Ask Your Friends Which Tint Shops Did Their Vehicles
Take a close look at the tint work on other people’s vehicles. Do you see bubbles, cracks, peeling, or signs of turning purple? If not, you might want to find out where this particular vehicle was tinted and add this shop to the list of shops to visit. This is simply a starting point! You still have work to do!
Visit the Website of Tint Shops That You Are Considering
No website? That would be a definite strike against them. Quality shops are proud to display their workmanship in any way possible. The website should not only show pictures of the work, but also help to educate customers in an effort to help them make a decision. Great shops are not afraid to share information and show off their expertise. As I write this, the year is 2012. EVERY business needs a quality website, especially a visual business like window tinting.
Read Online Reviews
While online reviews should not be your only basis of consideration, you can usually learn a lot about the workmanship and the general business practices of the shop. You should be looking for a tint shop with a lot of reviews and the majority being positive. Nobody is perfect and you might find some negativity. Be sure to consider how this negativity is handled. Some places to look for online reviews are Google Places, Yahoo Local, Yelp, Merchant Circle, etc. Many times you can find reviews on the companies own website. Put more trust in the independent review sites since the owner has no control over those reviews.
Visit the Tint Shop!
Unless the steps above make you 100% confident in your decision, you need to visit the shops you are considering. Nothing short of a visit will help you decide whether this is the right shop for you or not. Look at their showroom? Is it clean? Ask to see their installation area. Is that clean? You can’t expect a quality job in an unclean environment (This does not mean that you should expect an area fit for producing computer chips!). Are the employees professional? Are they dressed appropriately? Do they explain things clearly? How long have they been in business? How long have the window tinters been employed at this facility? These are all things that you will need to observe and ask the employees. The shop should make you feel totally comfortable in handing over the keys to your ride without any worries at all. If this is not the case, you haven’t found the right place yet. For more information on this step, see our post on what to look for in a quality tint shop.
Ask About the Shop’s Tint Warranty
Does the shop stand behind its work? If so for how long? In this business, it is not uncommon to have a warranty on tint work for as long as you own your vehicle. This is important since mistakes can happen and you don’t want to be left with a poor quality tint job on your ride. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the warranty. If the shop is evasive of unclear about this, I would scratch them from your list of considerations.
Brand of Tint
Here is an area where I believe some might disagree. Just hear me out and be sure to read this entire paragraph! If you trust the shop you are dealing with, BRAND OF TINT DOES NOT MATTER. If you have decided that Shop A is the best choice, you can rest assured that others have decided the same also. This makes for a busy shop and one that takes care of their customers. The last thing that a busy, quality shop wants to do is FIX MISTAKES or REPLACE DEFECTIVE TINT! They are going to work hard to select a quality brand of tint that does not cause them headaches. These guys are the professionals. They know tint. If you are counting on them to take care of your car and do the job right, you really need to trust their judgement on the tint that they offer. I will say that the exact opposite can be true if the shop does not measure up to the above criteria. If the shop is dirty, the employees unprofessional and the reviews mediocre, you can count on the fact that quality tint was not at the top of their list. CHEAP, inferior tint probably was.
PRICE!
Notice I saved this for last. In my opinion, if the shop passed all the tests above, price is not a consideration. Most people get tint shortly after making a vehicle purchase. Most people will keep a vehicle for about 3 years (36 months). That said, follow along with me on this exercise:
Shop A is everything you ever wanted in a tint shop. Clean, friendly, great online reviews, informative website with tons of pictures, great warranty and they’ve been in business for almost 20 years. They will charge you $275 to tint your vehicle.
Shop B Just opened up. They have no website (or one that looks like it was thrown together in less time than it took me to write this post). Reviews are non-existent. The shop is cluttered and dirty. The salesperson looks like you interrupted him for changing his oil. Their price to tint your ride is $199.
Think about this a second. On the surface it looks like a big difference. In reality, it is $2 a MONTH over the 3 years you will own your vehicle.. For less than a cup of Starbucks or a can of Monster, you can have total piece of mind that your tint job will be done right. If it isn’t, you’ve got a reputable, established shop that will stand behind the work and make it right. The shop that is in business for 20 years didn’t do that by accident. They did it by making people happy and exceeding their expectations. $2 a month buys you the pride of knowing that your vehicle looks great and will continue to look great for as long as you own it. A great question to ask yourself is “Do you want to trust your vehicle to the lowest bidder?”
Why is Shop A more expensive? Could it be that the owner is greedy and wants to make a quick buck? Highly unlikely. As stated above, if Shop A passed all the tests mentioned earlier, they have an established business with happy employees and customers. Retaining employees costs money. Maintaining a clean and functional work environment costs money. HAVING INSURANCE costs money. Paying taxes costs money. At the end of the day, both owners are probably making the same profit on each sale. But the owner of Shop A is certainly sleeping better at night knowing that his shop is providing great work and producing happy customers.
Conclusion
Getting your vehicle tinted can be confusing and intimidating. It is really an exercise in common sense. Do your homework and visit the shops. Talk to the employees and ask questions. Look around the shop and ask to see the installation area. Tie all of this together and you should have an idea of who is the right choice for you. Brand of tint should have little impact on your decision. Price should only come into play when all other things are equal.
Having tint applied to the windows of your car doesn’t just add to its aesthetic value, but can also generate other beneficial side effects. Darkened windows aren’t just for the upper crust riding around in limousines, paparazzi-shy celebrities, or presidential motorcades. Window tintingservices can be applied to any vehicle, new or used, to improve both value and performance.
Benefits of Window Tinting
Window tinting prevents the sun’s harmful UV rays from entering your car and more importantly your eyes and skin. Everyone already knows that high doses of UV rays can do considerable damage to your body.
Skin Damage Prevention
Many drivers who spend a great deal of time commuting may even develop skin cancer on the left side of their faces and arms. Keeping the sun’s rays from infiltrating your car with tinted windows can be a key step in ensuring that you’re doing your best to stay cancer free. Window tint film can keep almost 100% of UVA and UVB rays from entering your car and causing harm to your body.
Stop Premature Aging
Adding tint to your windows can even protect the car itself. These damaging rays can also work their way into the interior of your car. They permeate the car’s flooring, dash, seat covers, and any part exposed to the light. This can cause great damage to your vehicle and even cause the interior to emit dangerous chemicals due to being overheated.
Added Safety.
The adhesive used to attach the tint film to the window can also serve as a bonding agent for the glass in the tragic event of a car accident. It may help to reinforce the glass and keep the glass from shattering all over a driver or passenger or even prevent a body from flying through the windshield.
Tint a Green Product?
Even the environment can benefit from auto window tinting as well. The science here is simple. When you have window tint, your car doesn’t get as hot. If the interior isn’t incredibly hot, then you don’t have to run the air conditioning as much. Less air conditioning means less gas usage; this is good news for both the environment and your wallet.
If you’re ready to add some tint to your car,home, office or boat Tint Masters in Evans, Ga can help you keep cool when the heat is on call 706-922-3131 or visit us on the web @ www.tintmastersevans.com if you have any questions.
Ultraviolet radiation can travel through car and home windows, where it can contribute to the daily accumulation of sun exposure that can lead to skin cancer and photoaging. UV-blocking films can not only protect you against this exposure, but can offer other benefits as well.
Ultraviolet rays (UVR) are sneaky. Not only can they cause skin cancer and visible signs of aging, they're also very good at finding you. They can bounce off water, off sand, and they can penetrate glass. Which means that even if you're inside your car or house, if you're sitting next to a window with sunlight streaming in, you're at risk for UV damage.
Fortunately, the "window film" revolution is gaining momentum. It began with automobiles in the 1990's. Research showed that drivers with left-hand drive developed more skin damage on the left side of their bodies, while those with right-hand drive developed more damage on the right. The reason? UVR streaming through the driver-side windows. "Long-time drivers are found to have rougher, more pigmented skin with greater solar damage on their driver's side," noted Albert Kligman, MD, PhD, emeritus professor of dermatology, University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Philadelphia.
All of a car's windows filter out the sun's short-wave, UVB rays -all glass will filter UVB, in fact - but only the windshield in cars comes partially treated against the sun's UVA rays. However, for several years in all 50 states, transparent UVA-filtering film has been available for vehicles' side and back window glass. It screens out almost 100 percent of UVB and UVA, without reducing visibility.
And now, UVA-protective film has moved indoors big-time. Residential and commercial films come in flat sheets, in varied tints, cutting down glare by more than half while allowing 30-80 percent of visible light to get through, depending on the customer's wants. Like automobile film, they block out up to 99.9 percent of UVR. This helps prevent not only sunburn, but also the brief daily UV exposures that cumulatively accelerate skin aging and multiply the risk of skin cancer. In addition, the film can be lifesavers for people with diseases involving dangerous photosensitivity, such as xeroderma pigmentosum and lupus.
Along with clear health benefits, window film offers other advantages:
In hot weather, it cuts down heat within the home, which can reduce air conditioning expenses.
In cold weather, it reflects interior heat back into the house, reducing heating costs.
It helps keep sunshine from fading car upholstery and home furnishings.
Some new types of "safety" film help hold residential and commercial glass in place if shattered. Several times thicker than the standard sun-protective film, it can greatly reduce the chances of break-ins, property damage, and even personal injury that can result from broken glass.
Below are some benefits of applying window film to your existing windows:
Tinting reduces annoying glare
Tints can allow in more natural light than blinds and shades
Tints also balance outside appearances of your home, giving it a whole new look
Substantially reduces your electric bill
NFC rated films--our safety films are documented for performance
99.9% UV rejection from our window tints protect your furnishings from fading
Privacy
Our films have a lifetime warranty
Energy-efficient film can upgrade windows, sliders, doors, sun rooms, etc.
Some of our films qualify for tax or and energy rebates
Security films will protect your home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Tinting will allow light to pass through your windows while screening out heat and dangerous ultraviolet rays
We can help to eliminate hot and cold spots in your home or office
Gain over 80% solar rejection with some of our films
Our low emissivity (Low E) films improve insulating properties for year-round energy savings
Our tints are protected by durable, patented, scratch-resistant coatings and are applied with long lasting distortions-free adhesives
Our ceramic films offer superb heat rejection properties without compromising visibility and do not appear shiny
Ceramic films easily outperform all dyed, metallic and powder-coated films, while maintaining a clear view
You can start “Going Green” with window films and tints
Energy-efficient window films are equal to other energy saving measures such as high efficiency lighting, new control systems, and HVAC upgrades
Starting to do research on improving the efficiency of your home is great step on lowering your electricity bills or even better trying to lower your carbon footprint. Remember your air conditioner usually is the highest part of your electrical costs in your home or office.
Not only does Huper Optik Smart window films deliver a positive impact for the environment in energy savings and GHG emissions reductions, it also contributes to an avoidance of solid wastes typical of window replacement.
Keeps your home cool – Tinted windows act as extra shade. Almost like drapes without the fabric, it is a great way to keep the heat at bay. This significantly cools the home down without needing to lower the air conditioning.
Protects indoor furniture – The sun has been known to warp and dry out furniture. The simple tint can deter this significantly. If you want to protect your couches, tables, flooring, and so on, this can help.
Protects windows – Not only does this protect furniture, but it also protects the windows themselves. The tint prevents as much wear and tear from external forces. It also adds more strength to the glass.
Maintenance free – Tinted windows require very low upkeep. They add no additional work for the homeowner, which is a great benefit on top of everything else.
Doesn’t block your view – While curtains are a beautiful way to decorate a room, they can hide the beautiful outdoors if closed during the middle of the day. Tinted windows, on the other hand, provide shade and an open view.
Durable – Tinted windows protect your home in case of an accident. For example, if a window breaks, this helps hold the broken glass together to prevent the window from shattering.
Increases energy savings – Since tinted windows help keep a home cool, it is only natural that this means it also saves on air conditioning and electric bills.
Protects against harmful UV rays – Regular windows have no filter to protect residents against sun exposure. Tinted ones, however, do. This is especially beneficial in Georgia where we see the sun almost daily.
Hüper Optik is the smarter choice for your residential solar control needs. When you want to have comfort and UV Protection, paired with high performance and great aesthetics for your home, the choice is clear. Hüper Optik.
Hüper Optik nanotechnology residential window films not only greatly reduce the amount of heat (solar energy) in your home, they also reject 99.9% of the sun’s ultraviolet rays. These ultraviolet rays are a significant cause of skin problems and fading of home interiors. While protecting valuable home furnishings, the nonreflective films have the added feature of low reflectivity at night so that the view is not obscured.
The layer of film also provides an additional level of safety by keeping glass fragments together in the event of accidental breakage.
The building enevelope is the physical separator between the interior and the exterior environments of a building. These at their most basic element would be your walls, windows, roof, and doors. The many functions of the building envelope can be separated into three categories.
Support (to resist and transfer mechanical loads)
Control (the flow of matter and energy of all types)
Finish (to meet human desires on the inside and outside)
Of these three catagories the control function is the core of good performance. The largest whole in the building envelope is the windows, it presents one of the largest control challenges and at the same time can be an area where a sizeable amount of energy can be saved. Over 30% of a commercial building's controllable expenses are on energy. By controlling heat transfer heating and cooling demands can be reduced thus saving money on utliity expenses and maintence costs.
Energy for the sun radiates to our planet in various electromagnetic (em) wavelengths that make up what is known as the "Solar Spectrum." The Solar Spectrum can be divided into three regions Visible Light, Ultra Violet, and Infrared. These three regions radiate onto the building enevelope transmiting through glass windows and being absorbed by interior surfaces and bodies, it is re-radiated as heat. This re-radiated heat in turn increases the ambient temperature in the building's interior.
CONTROLLING HEAT GAIN WITH WINDOW FILM
Window Film acts as a filter reducing the amount of transmittance of these 3 regions of the solar spectrum through windows thus dramatically changing the proportion of energy that is absorbed by the buildings interior and occupants. Considering the fact that it requires large amounts of energy to condition hot air into cooler air, window film can reduce large loads that are placed on HVAC systems reducing energy costs up to 30% and balancing out hot spots in homes and commercial buildings.
CONTROLLING HEAT LOSS WITH WINDOW FILM
The second law of thermodynamics tells us that energy transfer is always from hot to cold. In cooler climates this means that the heat in buildings will convect through the surfaces with the least resistance back out into the cooler climate outside. The windows in the building enevelope are typically the weakest system whereby energy is lost thus increasing heating demand resulting in higher energy consumption.
Window films can reduce heat loss by lowering emissivity and the covection of energy through the window system. When considering the fractional expense of window film versus window replacement, window films are a great way to reduce energy consumption at an affordable price.
The center of this confusion is the sun's ultraviolet A (long-wave) and ultraviolet B (shortwave) rays. Our understanding of exactly what kinds of damage each causes to the skin, and how best to protect ourselves, seems to shift every year as new research comes out. For example, it was once thought that only UVB was of concern, but we keep learning more and more about the damage caused by UVA. And new, improved forms of protection against UVA keep emerging. Keeping up with these new developments is a worthwhile challenge that can help all of us prevent sun damage.
UV radiation is part of the electromagnetic (light) spectrum that reaches the earth from the sun. It has wavelengths shorter than visible light, making it invisible to the naked eye. These wavelengths are classified as UVA, UVB, or UVC, with UVA the longest of the three at 320-400 nanometers (nm, or billionths of a meter). UVA is further divided into two wave ranges, UVA I, which measures 340-400 nanometers (nm, or billionths of a meter), and UVA II which extends from 320-340 nanometers. UVB ranges from 290 to 320 nm. With even shorter rays, most UVC is absorbed by the ozone layer and does not reach the earth.
Both UVA and UVB, however, penetrate the atmosphere and play an important role in conditions such as premature skin aging, eye damage (including cataracts), and skin cancers. They also suppress the immune system, reducing your ability to fight off these and other maladies.
By damaging the skin's cellular DNA, excessive UV radiation produces genetic mutations that can lead to skin cancer. Both the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization have identified UV as a proven human carcinogen. UV radiation is considered the main cause of nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC), including basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). These cancers strike more than a million and more than 250,000 Americans, respectively, each year. Many experts believe that, especially for fair-skinned people, UV radiation also frequently plays a key role in melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, which kills more than 8,000 Americans each year.
Most of us are exposed to large amounts of UVA throughout our lifetime. UVA rays account for up to 95 percent of the UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface. Although they are less intense than UVB, UVA rays are 30 to 50 times more prevalent. They are present with relatively equal intensity during all daylight hours throughout the year, and can penetrate clouds and glass.
UVA, which penetrates the skin more deeply than UVB, has long been known to play a major part in skin aging and wrinkling (photoaging), but until recently scientists believed it did not cause significant damage in areas of the epidermis (outermost skin layer) where most skin cancers occur. Studies over the past two decades, however, show that UVA damages skin cells called keratinocytes in the basal layer of the epidermis, where most skin cancers occur. (Basal and squamous cells are types of keratinocytes.) UVA contributes to and may even initiate the development of skin cancers.
UVA is the dominant tanning ray, and we now know that tanning, whether outdoors or in a salon, causes cumulative damage over time. A tan results from injury to the skin's DNA; the skin darkens in an imperfect attempt to prevent further DNA damage. These imperfections, or mutations, can lead to skin cancer.
Tanning booths primarily emit UVA. The high-pressure sunlamps used in tanning salons emit doses of UVA as much as 12 times that of the sun. Not surprisingly, people who use tanning salons are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma. According to recent research, first exposure to tanning beds in youth increases melanoma risk by 75 percent.
UVB, the chief cause of skin reddening and sunburn, tends to damage the skin's more superficial epidermal layers. It plays a key role in the development of skin cancer and a contributory role in tanning and photoaging. Its intensity varies by season, location, and time of day. The most significant amount of UVB hits the U.S. between 10 AM and 4 PM from April to October. However, UVB rays can burn and damage your skin year-round, especially at high altitudes and on reflective surfaces such as snow or ice, which bounce back up to 80 percent of the rays so that they hit the skin twice. UVB rays do not significantly penetrate glass.
Protect yourself from UV radiation, both indoors and out. Always seek the shade outdoors, especially between 10 AM and 4 PM. And since UVA penetrates glass, consider adding flat, tinted UV-protective film to your car's side and rear windows as well as to house and business windows. This film blocks up to 99.9 percent of UV radiation and lets in up to 80 percent of visible light.
Outdoors, dress to limit UV exposure: Special sun-protective clothes with UPF (ultraviolet protection factor) indicate how much UV radiation can penetrate the fabric; the higher the UPF, the better. A shirt with an UPF of 30, for example, means that just 1/30th of the sun's UV radiation can reach the skin. Laundry additives can also be washed right into regular fabrics to provide higher UPFs. However, you can enhance your sun safety simply by learning to evaluate everyday fabrics' sun protection qualities and choosing those with the best protection. For instance, bright- or dark-colored, lustrous clothes reflect more UV radiation than do pastels and bleached cottons; and tightly woven, loose-fitting clothes provide more of a barrier between your skin and the sun. Finally, broad-brimmed hats and UV-blocking sunglasses help shield the sensitive skin on your head, neck, and around the eyes - areas that usually sustain a lot of sun damage.
More tips on sun safety can be found in our Guidelines.
Since the advent of modern sunscreens, a sunscreen's efficacy has been measured by its sun protection factor, or SPF. SPF is not an amount of protection per se. Rather, it indicates how long it will take for UVB rays to redden skin when using a sunscreen, compared to how long skin would take to redden without the product. For instance, someone using a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 will take 15 times longer to redden than without the sunscreen. An SPF 15 sunscreen screens 93 percent of the sun's UVB rays; SPF 30 protects against 97 percent; and SPF 50, 98 percent. The Skin Cancer Foundation maintains that SPFs of 15 or higher are necessary for adequate protection.
Since both UVA and UVB are harmful, you need protection from both kinds of rays. To make sure you're getting effective UVA as well as UVB coverage, look for a sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher, plus some combination of the following UVA-screening ingredients: stabilized a avobenzone, ecamsule (a.k.a. MexorylTM), oxybenzone, titanium dioxide, and zinc oxide. You may see the phrases multi spectrum, broad spectrum or UVA/UVB protection on sunscreen labels, and these all indicate that some UVA protection is provided. However, because there is no consensus on how much protection these terms indicate, such phrases may not be entirely meaningful.
There are currently 17 active ingredients approved by the FDA for use in sunscreens. These filters fall into two broad categories: chemical and physical. Most UV filters are chemical: They form a thin, protective film on the surface of the skin and absorb the UV radiation before it penetrates the skin. The physical sunscreens are insoluble particles that reflect UV away from the skin. Most sunscreens contain a mixture of chemical and physical active ingredients.
FDA-Approved Sunscreens
Active Ingredient/UV Filter Name
Range Covered
UVA1: 340-400 nm
UVA2: 320-340 nm
UVB: 290-320 nm
Chemical Absorbers:
Aminobenzoic acid (PABA)
UVB
Avobenzone
UVA1
Cinoxate
UVB
Dioxybenzone
UVB, UVA2
Ecamsule (Mexoryl SX)
UVA2
Ensulizole (Phenylbenzimiazole Sulfonic Acid)
UVB
Homosalate
UVB
Meradimate (Menthyl Anthranilate)
UVA2
Octocrylene
UVB
Octinoxate (Octyl Methoxycinnamate)
UVB
Octisalate ( Octyl Salicylate)
UVB
Oxybenzone
UVB, UVA2
Padimate O
UVB
Sulisobenzone
UVB, UVA2
Trolamine Salicylate
UVB
Physical Filters:
Titanium Dioxide
UVB, UVA2
Zinc Oxide
UVB,UVA2, UVA1
If you follow our comprehensive Prevention Guidelines, you can enjoy yourself outdoors while staying protected from both UVA and UVB year-round, whatever the weather, wherever your locale.
Seek the shade, especially between 10 AM and 4 PM.
Do not burn.
Avoid tanning and UV tanning booths.
Cover up with clothing, including a broad-brimmed hat and UV-blocking sunglasses.
Usa a broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher every day. For extended outdoor activity, use a water-resistant, broad spectrum (UVA/UVB) sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.
Apply 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) of sunscreen to your entire body 30 minutes before going outside. Reapply every two hours, or immediately after swimming or excessive sweating.
Keep newborns out of the sun. Sunscreens should be used on babies over the age of six months.
Examine your skin head-to-toe every month.
See your physician every year for a professional skin exam.
