How do I cope with strong sun?

Sun protection is treated as a sunscreen question, and sunscreen is the weakest of the three defences. Shade and clothing do more, more reliably, and they do not wear off.

Safety

Step by step

1. Use timing first.UV peaks roughly between 11am and 3pm. Moving an activity to the morning or late afternoon removes more exposure than any product, and costs nothing.
2. Then use shade and clothing.A hat with a brim, a loose long-sleeved top, sunglasses. Fabric does not need reapplying, does not wash off and does not depend on being spread evenly.
3. Treat sunscreen as the last line.For what cannot be covered — face, hands, neck, ears, feet. It is the backup, not the plan, and treating it as the plan is why people burn.
4. Use far more than feels right.Roughly a teaspoon for the face and neck, and around six to eight teaspoons for a whole adult body. Most people apply a quarter of the tested amount, which is why the stated factor is not what they get.
5. Apply before going out and reapply on a timer.Twenty to thirty minutes before, then every two hours, and immediately after swimming or towelling regardless of what the bottle says about water resistance.
6. Cover the places people miss.Ears, back of the neck, tops of the feet, the hairline and any parting, and behind the knees. These are where holiday sunburn nearly always is.
7. Check the UV index rather than the temperature.UV is not correlated with how warm it feels. A cool bright day in May can carry a higher index than a muggy August afternoon, and cloud reduces it far less than people assume.
8. Allow for reflection and altitude.Water, sand and snow reflect substantially, and UV rises with altitude. Sitting in shade beside water is not the protection it appears to be.
9. Drink more and watch for the signs.Headache, dizziness, nausea, cramps and heavy sweating point to heat exhaustion — get into shade, cool down and drink. Confusion, hot dry skin or collapse is heatstroke, which is a 999 call.
10. Take particular care with children and older people.Babies under six months should be kept out of direct sun entirely. Older people are less likely to feel thirst and more likely to be on medication that affects heat tolerance.
11. Check your medication.Several common drug groups — some antibiotics, diuretics and anti-inflammatories among them — increase sun sensitivity markedly. It is on the leaflet and it surprises people.
12. Check the sunscreen is in date and stored sensibly.It degrades, particularly if it has spent a summer in a hot car. Last year's half-used bottle is often not delivering what it claims.

Tips

• The most reliable protection is being somewhere else between 11 and 3. Everything after that is compensating for not doing it.
• A teaspoon for the face and neck is the useful measure. Almost everyone applies substantially less than that.
• Cloud cover reduces UV far less than it reduces heat, which is why overcast days produce a lot of unexpected sunburn.

Common mistakes

• Applying too little sunscreen — Products are tested at around 2mg per square centimetre and most people apply a quarter of it, so the protection achieved is far below the stated factor.
• Judging risk by temperature — UV does not track how warm it feels. A bright cool day can carry a high index, and cloud reduces UV much less than it reduces heat.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask