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Heatwave warning
If you're planning to head out and enjoy the sun, or going away on holiday, you're being urged to check the sell by date on your sun cream.
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It's after a Bedford man was hospitalised with badly burnt feet whilst on holiday.
He believed he was protected from the sun - but his sun cream was 2 or 3 years old and past it's sell by date - meaning he had little to zero protection from the sun's harmful rays.
Lynn Gell, Bedford Borough Council Trading Standards Manager: "“We would recommend that you throw away any sun creams that were opened more than 12 months ago and purchase new bottles. Also, ensure that they are stored in a cool dry place because both heat and bacteria damage sun creams and may therefore reduce the effectiveness of the creams protection.
Our Officers will be checking sun creams sold in stores throughout the Borough to ensure they comply with labelling requirements.
"Under the Cosmetic Product Safety Regulations 2008, sun creams are not required to have an expiry date but they are required to display a symbol, which is used to indicate how long the product can be open for, without deteriorating. The number in the symbol should relate to the period in months or years or both months and years that you can use the sun cream after opening it."
If you're going away, or out into the sun, then follow these simple tips to protect yourself:
- Keeping covered affords the best protection
- Stay out of the sun between noon and 3 pm when the sun is at its strongest
- Choose a sun cream with an SPF of at least factor 15 which should only allow approximately 7% of harmful UVB rays through.
- Apply sun cream thickly and thoroughly to get the right amount of protection
- Children will be more susceptible to burning than most adults.
- Testing is only carried out on a small number of volunteers and can't take into account all skin types, so choose sun cream wisely
- Throw away old sun cream as it will not protect you from burning - or even worse.
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