[quote=“MaPoSquid”
What’s all this nonsense about “far less effective”? Once you reach a certain level of protection, more is just silliness and one-upsmanship. “Yes, but my sunblock goes to 11.”
SPF 45 is available in the U.S. All it means is that it has more TiO2 in it than the SPF30. Doesn’t do ANYTHING more to protect you, since you can get staked out naked on an anthill in Death Valley on the Summer Solstice, smeared with SPF30, for sixteen hours and end up with nothing more than a bit of dehydration and a bunch of ant bites.
[/quote]
SPF is only an indicator of UVB protection. I think SPF 30 blocks 96% (or something like that) of UVB rays. A Higher SPF will mean more. It’s not much but still recommended for people that are high risk for skin cancer.
For UVA, there is no rating. And UVA protection is relatively new. They say Mexoryl is 2 times more effective than the next available UVA protectant. Mexoryl isn’t available in the US but others are. Which is the 2nd best, I’m not sure.
So SPF is no indication of UVA protection. Maybe I said that 10 times already. And UVA is what causes leathering, some types of cancer, wrinkling, and photoaging.
Gary