So it’s officially fall here in the North East United States and presumably, hopefully every place else in the northern hemisphere. As a result, the days are getting shorter and the sun is much lower in the sky with a lower angle. As a result, the UVB rays are diminished in their strength and their amount. Of course, the UVA rays are just as strong now as they were all summer long because UVA rays are the same everyday of the year and all day long. As a result, one of our viewers has asked us, since there’s so much less UVB radiation and I’m really indoors most of the time, can I just use a sunscreen that has only UVA protection, do I really need UVB protection at this time? And the answer is, categorically, you need UVB protection as well as UVA protection for two reasons. First of all, with UVB as with UVA, the meter’s always running, which means, one minute here, two minutes there, three minutes there, it all adds up. So, five or six minutes five days a week is like 25 or 30 minutes of continuous sun exposure at the beach on a Saturday with no sunscreen. Yes, you need your sunscreen. And from a practical point of view there’s even another reason why you can’t use a UVA sunscreen that only protects against UVA. And that’s simply because, certainly in the United States, there aren’t any and the reason that there aren’t any is because for a sunscreen to be FDA approved in this country it has to list its SPF or sun protection factor which refers only to UVB protection. Could you imagine applying to the FDA with a sunscreen with an SPF of zero? Or could you even try to imagine trying to market such a thing, where on the label in big numbers is says SPF 0? I don’t think it’s going to work out very well. I’m going to end this video the way I’ve ended so many other episodes: make sure, everyday, you use a sunscreen with an SPF between 15 and 30 with UVA protection.
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