Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

I had to give an extremely informative sppech a school about sunburn and here are some of the main pointers that I could remember.

1. The Worst place is not Melbourne or New Zealand it is infact PERTH which has no oz-one or next to nothing.

2. The number on the bottle ie. 30 is how long in minutes you should be spending in the sun. So putting a sun factor 30 on for the day is hopeless. Put it on about 4 times in the day to be safe.

3. Most people rub the cream in until it is invisible but when you put it on you are actually meant to see the cream, yes white skin. Now i havn't made this stuff up it's on official web-sites and doctors which have appeared on t.v. over in the U.K. I know it's annoying getting cream on your clothes but thats how it is. If you have fair hair you burn. And if you have red hair especially you fry.

4. If you want higher sun factor best bet is to contact a well known sun cream producer and ask them to export i.e. PIZ BUIN is sahara desert tested.

5. Water. You could be stationary OR swimming it doesn't matter. The light rays hit you then the water and then reflect back onto you giving YOU twice or three times the burn. Good idea to wear a t-shirt and make sure it's white 'cos it reflects the rays. NOT BLACK!

6. AND REMEMBER MOST IMPORTANT POINT! There are UVA and UVB rays check on the back of your sun cream bottle what your's covers. UVA is the number ie. spf 15, spf 30+ and the UVB is represented in stars out of FIVE on the back. If there are no stars and it doesn't say anything about UVB DON'T buy it. UVB is the one which CAUSES skin cancer!

Hope this has cleared up some confusion. I went to Oz in the summer for a reccie and didn't get burned once. N.B Hats - good idea! :D

Hope this has helped.

Pommy Babe. :beer:

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

Good points - but Oz sun creams don't have the UVB stars on the back like they do in the uk! Some do say they give uvb protection but thats all. I thought coming here we'd get all the super sun cream etc but it seems way behind the uk?

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

I think that if you go to one of the skin cancer clinics that are all over the place they will either sell you or recommend the best for you. If they recommend something it will have UVA and UVB protection.

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

I don't trust the sun over here at all and I am in Perth, anything from September onwards can burn in a short amount of time, so always slap on some sun cream, its not worth not to in the end, as another poster says the are loads of skin clinics and the cancer clinics are full here and I don't fancy ever having to be a patient at one.
Jenny

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

And you're absolutely right.

Useful link: Bom UV forecasts
These are daily forecasts for Australia. There's also a page with graphs for major Australian cities and another with text forecasts for a bigger range of places - both linked from the main UV forecasts page.

We're into extreme UV levels in most of Australia at the moment, with today's UV index for Melbourne hitting 11 (Darwin, by comparison, got 16). Compare that with UV index of 1 or 2 for Britain and you get the picture...

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

Cloudy days r the worst cos u dont think it is hot...we wear factor 30+ on a daily basis but sometimes still get caught....u think its not that hot but the UV factor is still 14 plus....take care in the sun folks and wish mum a speedy recovery...oh can i pick off the flakey bits lol

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

I was very sun conscious (slip, slap, slop) in Australia but the dull days caught me out on a few occasions and I think myself lucky I was not taken to hospital with the severity of the burns, it is a dangerous sun over there and caution at ALL times :(

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

Does anyone know how different the sun is in Oz from say, the Red Sea?

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

we r talkin bout \Oz no the ****** Red Sea............the sun is dangerous no matter where u r....even in the UK the kids didnbt go out without sun screan...shades and hat on....used to make us laff when peeps sed awe bless how do u get them to keep hat and dhades on i would say ummmm they r 3 years old if they dont wear em they r inside FFS...when we came to \oz....was kids beach walk for charity....out of 159 pupils my two were the only ones with shades on FFS people get a grip huh

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

I guess something to do with how far you are away from the equator???? :confused: Maybe the Ozone???? Not sure, any geography/weather experts around?

I lived in Israel for 6 months and of course I was careful but found 7 years in Australia to be the most severe when it came to the sun than any place I had lived before.

SYDNEY - 8.30 am in the morning, 10 minutes pegging up the washing and RED shoulders :eek: :scared:

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

...erm - I'm sure it's been said before but not everyone is alike??

Many people only have to think about being in the sun and they are lobsterfied (is that a word??) whereas some have much more tolerance (myself included).

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

Closer you are to the Equator the closer you are to the sun.

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

Tis what I thought, thank you :)

I guess there are also a dozen "weather" type factors to take into account?

MMum :)

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

i have a really high sun tolerance....... have travelled the world wearing nothing more than spf 2 and still have lovely fresh skin ( being 23 does hold with that tho), have never been burnt and keep a decent tan for months

however even in australia i have to venture to 15+ on a normal day and special high water resistant 30+ on Scuba diving /beach days.

another word of advice for peeps using strange aussie sunscreen for the 1st time..... check it's safe for you to use on a small patch of skin (behind ears is good.... don't do what i do and slap it on the ole face only to have to run to the bathroom in agony 5 minutes later. was burnt and blistered before i even made it outside!!! great start to my holiday eh!!! Auntie Darlene has now banned that particular sunscreen from the house thank goodness!

Re: Sunburn - a word of warning
 

thing is tho u dont need to get burnt to damage your skin....a tan is also sun damage