Damage Control for Sun Worshipers

July 10, 2003
By MICHELLE SLATALLA






I'M no hysteric, but when I see my family sitting outside
without sunblock, I get an irresistible urge to baste them
like capons.

Sometimes this leads to trouble, like the time on Nantucket
a few summers back when I inadvertently blinded my husband.


"My eyes, my eyes," he moaned as he swatted at globs of
thick white lotion that tufted his eyebrows. For the rest
of the day he made a great show of Visine use.

In any successful marriage, it is important to know when to
ignore one's spouse. In that instance, I felt the real
story was his nose. It didn't turn Tip O'Neill red, and it
never peeled. The man should have been thanking me instead
of theatrically groping at the walls like Audrey Hepburn in
<object.title class="Movie" idsrc="nyt_ttl"
value="53157">"Wait Until Dark."</object.title>

So for years, I blithely continued to smear fistfuls of
whatever brand of sunblock was on sale at the drugstore (so
long as it said S.P.F. 30, whatever that meant), smugly
assuming I was taking all possible steps to hold melanoma
at bay.

Then one day last week, my world turned upside down.

It
happened on the way to the pool club, after my friend Marie
D'Amico pulled a tube that looked like a glue stick from
her backpack and started rubbing it all over her 6-year-old
daughter's face.

"It's called SunSmart," she said. "It blocks both UVB and
UVA rays, it's got zinc oxide in it, and it doesn't get in
the eyes."

There are two kinds of ultraviolet rays? ("Three,
actually," Marie said.) Clearly I had a lot to learn.

By the time we reached the pool, Marie had zipped both our
daughters into long-sleeved miracle-fabric sun-protection
bathing suits that looked like scuba gear, pulled out a
special sunblock hat for backup, ticked off a list of
obscure sunscreen brands she had tested but rejected as
"too goopy," and warned me to ignore lotions' claims about
being waterproof.

"Reapply, reapply, reapply," she said. Then she moved her
towel to a shadier chair.

I was getting a glimpse into a whole new realm of sun
protection, courtesy of a master. Marie not only knew the
differences among UVA, UVB and UVC rays, but also that
S.P.F. (which stands for sunscreen protection factor)
describes how much longer it will take to get a sunburn
with sunscreen than without. A person wearing a lotion
rated S.P.F. 30 will take 30 times as long to get burned as
someone like my husband, who believes himself immune to the
forces of nature.

Overwhelmed, I tried to stay focused. "Where do you get the
stick thing?" I asked Marie.

Online, of course. In fact, that's where she bought all
these products I'd never heard of. "There's even a Rit
powder you can put in the wash to make all your clothes
block more UV rays," Marie said. "It used to be available
at drugstores, but now I only can find it on the Web."

The next day I decided to investigate. With a family trip
to Martha's Vineyard looming, I figured the first thing to
do was to get to the bottom of the SunSmart story. Why, for
instance, was it not widely available in drugstores?

So I phoned NPR Healthcare, which sells its SunSmart
sunblocks on the company's Internet site, atforyou.com, to
find out why the only other place the line is sold is
through physicians.

"Do you need a prescription for it?" I asked.

"No, but
it's a line that is technologically driven, so we think
it's better sold through folks who can explain its
benefits," said Mark Mitchnick, the company's chief
executive. "The consumers who buy it online from us tend to
be very well informed about sun-protection products."

"I noticed," I said.

Mr. Mitchnick said that the
technological breakthrough of SunSmart products (which also
come in a lotion formulation for those who like to sneak up
on sleeping spouses) is a transparent form of zinc oxide -
an invisible version of that white stuff on the noses of
lifeguards - which is an effective, long-lasting sunblock.

"We invented transparent zinc oxide, which is called
z-cote, then we sold the patent to it, and now it's used by
a number of companies, including ours," Mr. Mitchnick said.


For a list of other sunscreen products that contain z-cote,
see z-cote.com.

The SunSmart sticks are not to be confused with SunSmart
children's swimwear, made by an unaffiliated Canadian
company that sells its suits online at sunsmart.ca. The
swimsuits are made of a tightly woven nylon and lycra blend
that blocks more than 97 percent of ultraviolet rays, said
the owner of SunSmart Inc., Joanne Speight.

Each SunSmart suit has a UV monitor on it that looks like a
decal of a mermaid or dolphin or stars. The decal changes
color and darkens when exposed to strong ultraviolet rays.
The suits cost $31.95 (plus $4.50 for shipping to the
United States).

My friend Marie got her daughter's long-sleeved,
long-legged, zippered swimsuit (it looks like a microfiber
version of those fuzzy pajamas that toddlers wear) from

skin-savers.com, a site that also carries a full line of
sun-protection products for adults. Hats, gloves and
umbrellas that block ultraviolet rays - they're all there.

"How do those fabrics work?" I asked Patrice Rothchild,
the owner of Skin Savers, which operates the site.

"It's inherent in the yarn and the weave," she said. "It's
a tighter weave. It's a bit challenging to make it cool and
breathable and yet block out the sun. We try to use fabrics
from Australia and New Zealand because they are the only
countries with standards for sun-protection fabrics. They
have very stringent testing."

"How do the swimsuits feel when you're wearing them?" I
asked.

"It keeps you a little bit warmer in the water and actually
cool and comfortable in the sun, even on the beach and in
intense heat."

The site's long-sleeved, long-legged children's Stingersuit
(available in eight color combinations) costs $42 ($51 for
sizes 12 and 14) plus $6.95 for shipping.

The men's Short Sleeve Rash Top suit (eight colors) is $42
as well, but I don't think I could persuade my husband to
wear it. I could, however, slip a little Rit Sun Guard
Laundry Treatment UV Protectant into the wash cycle. A
six-pack costs $20 at dermadoctor.com.

First things first, though. I bought two SunSmart sticks
($5.50 each, plus $6.41 shipping and handling) from
atforyou.com. I figure a test patch can be applied while
he's asleep.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/technology/circuits/10shop.html?ex=1058967329&\
ei=1&en=c7550f7c0b9250ae




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]