[gap height=”25″]Shelly Watson from JK-Light has been fielding several calls from salon operators wanting clarification about UVB percentages. I decided to cover this topic again.[gap height=”25″]
So, what are UVB percentages and what do they tell you about lamp performance?[gap height=”25″]
There isn’t an industry standard for determining a lamp’s UVB output, just as there is no industry standard for determining the “tingle factor” of a tanning lotion. For example, a product designated Tingle Factor 30 from Company A may perform completely differently than a Tingle Factor 30 from Company B. However, you know within the lotion lines from Company A that their 30 is stronger than their 20, and the same goes for Company B; but, you can’t compare Company A’s tingle to Company B’s tingle.[gap height=”25″]
It’s basically the same concept with tanning lamps. The UVB ratio is just a number that sunlamp manufacturers use to market their products. A UVB percentage number is reached by dividing a sunlamp’s measured amount of UVB energy by its UVA energy. This is a common method of “rating” sunlamps; but it is only a relative figure and tells us very little about the tanning power, effectiveness or useful life of a given lamp. It is not an accurate measure of a lamp’s true performance.[gap height=”25″]
Exposure to UVB radiation is a critical component for the production of melanin in human skin, which is then darkened by exposure to UVA. The determining factors in a sunlamp’s performance are the total amount of UV energy, and whether the UVA and UVB are from the most effective spectral regions.[gap height=”25″]
Two sunlamps are shown in this simple graph. Both deliver the same amount of UVB energy, but emit greatly differing amounts of UVA. The lamp on the left (1) has a 5% UVB ratio versus the on the right (2) with only 4%. If one only looks to the UVB% values, Lamp 1 with its higher UVB/UVA ratio could mistakenly be construed as a stronger or more effective lamp. Not true; Lamp 2 has a lower UVB ratio because it emits so much more UVA.[gap height=”25″]
An effective sunlamp must produce a balance of both UVA and UVB. Adding more UVB typically creates a lamp that delivers more skin “reddening,” but is not a better “tanning” lamp.[gap height=”25″]
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