The sun is shining, time to get out the umbrella. It could save your life!!

"Are you mad, the sun is finally shining and you're banging on about umbrellas?" I hear you say.

No, I've not lost a few (more) of my marbles, I'm going to tell you why it IS good to have an umbrella in this glorious summer weather. According to a US study published in JAMA Dermatology, any umbrella can block more than three-quarters of ultraviolet (UV) light on a sunny day.

But why should we want to block UV rays?

Silver Heart Umbrella

Exposure to UV rays can disrupt the replication of DNA leading to harmful mutations that turn into skin cancer. I know this better than most as my husband has had quite a few skin cancer patches pop up on his back and chest (his first was when he was only 35!), and when we've gone to have them removed (frozen off & cut out), the consultant has been very adamant in telling us that there is no such thing as healthy tan, and to try to block the skin's exposure to UVA and UVB rays wherever possible.
My hubby puts his cancer down to the poor knowledge of the effects of UV when he was growing up, when during many a hot summer day he would be out all day in the sun with only a splodge of plain old Nivea moisturising lotion on.

So back to why a brolly is a great UV blocker.

Windproof Square Golf Umbrella

Researchers at Emory University, in Atlanta,  collected 23 umbrellas from people at their medical school. The brollies were checked for no fabric tears, and then on a sunny morning they used UV devices to measure radiation levels just under each umbrella's fabric, and by the nose of the person using it, and then compared this to radiation readings taken with no umbrella.

All but one of the umbrellas was a standard, handheld rain umbrella. The other was a travel sun umbrella. The standard umbrellas blocked approximately 77 percent of the UV radiation (up to 90% if the umbrella was dark colour), and the sun umbrella blocked more than 99 percent of the UV rays. 

Does Hello Brolly have UV Protective umbrellas?

Black Witch Umbrella

Hello Brolly has great umbrellas with UV protection but the best, in my opinion, is the Black Witch pagaoda umbrella.
Why?
The Black Witch has a large canopy therefore more coverage, it is black which the study show blocks approximately 90% of rays, but combine these with the fact that it's inner canopy is coated with silver UV protection then the blocking goes up to 99%.

But the others also have silver reflective coating, so why is it better than the 2 other UV brollies?
There is one very interesting fact that isn't widely know, even if you have a brolly, reflected rays still reach you by being reflected off flat floor surfaces, such as pavements. Now, because the Black Witch's reflective coating is on the inside, it helps to deflect these reflected rays.

So remember

You may feel a bit weird holding an umbrella in the sunshine, but if you haven't got any sun tan cream with you, your brolly will be your best defence against the rays, and remember it's not just the serious cancers that you are protecting yourself from, UV Rays are the biggest factor in skin ageing too.