Burning question for sunseekers
Everyone knows it is important to beware of too much sun while on holiday – but new research has revealed the sun’s rays are stronger than we think.
A study by German scientists has found that people outdoors are exposed to higher levels of harmful ultraviolet light than previously thought.
Exposure to UV rays is currently calculated by working out how much sunlight hits a flat surface, but Professor Peter Hoeppe and a team of colleagues in Munich have been checking the sun’s impact on sloped surfaces, according to BBC News.
They measured the UV radiation hitting nearly 30 surfaces at different angles and then, using a three-dimensional image of the human body, with the surface divided into about 20,000 triangles, worked out how much radiation the body would get at different angles. It found that exposure was many times higher than thought when someone was standing up, for example.
The scientists hope doctors will use the information to educate holidaymakers about which areas of their skin are at greatest risk of sun damage in different circumstances. Skiers might be at particularly high risk because snow slopes can reflect as much as 60% of UV, they say.
Phil Davies
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