BSI Logo Protects Your Skin

From this month, clothing in the UK will start to feature a new logo if it offers adequate protection from the sun's harmful rays.

Clothing will be tested in a number of approved laboratories and those that pass can carry the logo, launched by the British Standards Institute, who are also responsible for the British safety kitemark.

According to Dr Colin Driscoll of the National Radiological Protection Board, the protection clothing gives against the sun depends on the weave of the fabric - the closer the weave, the more protection is offered. "But once you've got a reasonably tight weave, then other items like the weight and the colour become important".

Saturday, 30 June 2001