SPF tells how much UVB a sun screen lets through to the skin. This means an SPF of 15 only lets 1/15 of the UVB through so in theory you can stay out 15 times as long before you get sun burned. But first you need to know how long you can stay out in the sun before you get sunburned. For really pale people it’s less than 10 minutes so SPF 15 means they can stay out of 150 minutes before they burn. If they were using SPF 50 they could manage 500 minutes which is near enough to a full working day. Brits tend to the paler end of the skin colour spectrum (officially the Fitzpatrick skin typing Scale) so I’d go for SPF50. Make sure that the sun cream also covers UVA which does not burn the skin but can cause skin cancer. Also tell staff to re-apply the sun cream, as most creams rub off during the day, to cover up if they can and to work in the shade if they can.

You don't need more than SPF30 even if (like me) you are very fair. Eight hours of high-risk sun is about the most we get even in mid-summer, and that will give you 16 minutes of exposure at SPF30, this is about as safe as you need to be. The British Association of Dermatologists recommend SPF30, with, and this is important, shade and clothing as well. Don't just rely on the stuff in the bottle. More important than going above SPF30 is paying careful attention to how the stuff should be applied; a thin smear at the start of the day isn't going to help. It needs to be slapped on with a trowel, and if people have physical jobs it needs frequent application. Pen-pushers like me can go longer between aplications, as we probably aren't sweating as much, John

Some great comments here especially the point that in reality you HALF the protection factor shown & what we need to remember is that a sun tan for a white British person is in fact a skin problem & not a healthy thing I advise that sun screen is not provided [staff provide their own if they want to use it] and that we cover up, which is easily done irrespective of what people say, where possible and organise work so as exposure to the sun is managed properly Additionally we are introducing more chemicals not less to the workforce with all the problems that these chemicals bring & note COSHH applies here and long term studies have show that regular use of sun cream etc. brings with it chemical imbalances and problems even to new-born children where their moms had been constantly using such chemicals My overall comment is to explore all the pros and cons, inclusive of where COSHH fits in and then make the findings known to management and workers and let others make the managing decisions

The Cancer Council has a number of good resources on skin cancer. http://www.cancerqld.org.../prevention/skin_cancer/

An interesting article cropped up on BBC news this morning about the labelling of sun screen. I must admit I'd always just looked at the SPF rating - which protects against UVB rays. There is an additional 'star' rating that shows the protection level against UVA rays too. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33272420 for the full article.

Agreed, but that can happen with any product that is applied to the skin. At the European Society of Contact Dermatitis, each conference is preceded by a one-day workshop on these types of reaction. This is not a reason not to provide cosmetic products (for that is what they are) such as sun screen, moisturisers, skin cleansers, etc. For the record, in my copy of the latest edition of his guide on patch testing for skin allergens, de Groot lists 4,350 chemicals. Most of these will not have been assigned H317 and will therefore almost certainly not appear on a safety data sheet. At least the consumer gets a complete list of all constituents. Chris

I use the [Soltan] Factor 50 kiddies version of their sun cream - hypoallergenic and also very easily absorbed. SPF 50 and 5 stars protection. Others makes are available