Sun protection of Thorofare clothing.

http://skincancer.org/sun-protective-clothing.html

Thanks for posting this, John. Really good info.

Pertex says that Equilbrium has a "CPF 30+ filters UVR". For what ever that means.

Bill,

Am I to take it that Thorofare clothing is made of Pertex Equilibrium? Did you get this information from BPL, or did you reach this concusion yourself by comparing the Thorofare material with a piece of Equilibrium?

Regarding the CPF 30+ rating, I'm a bit confused. CPF stands for color protection factor, a term used in the cosmetics industry to refer to the degree to which shampoo protects hair from bleaching by ultraviolet light. I've never heard this term being applied to clothing before. The universal rating system for the level of ultraviolet protection provided by fabrics is UPF (ultraviolet protection factor).

If Pertex haven't made a mistake, and did intend to use CPF rather than UPF, this seems to suggest that they're referring to the abilty of the fabric to retain its color when exposed to sunlight, rather than the fabric's capacity to protect the wearer of an Equilibrium garment from ultraviolet radiation.

Also, even supposing that the Thorofare fabric is Equilibrium, and that the CPF rating is a mistake, and that they really meant UPF, does this rating hold for all weights of Equilibrium? Density of weave, thickness of yarn, color of fabric, and many more variables, affect the UPF of a fabric. I understand that there are many different weights of Equilibrium. Can one UPF rating really apply to every weight of Equilibrium? Can the same UPF even apply to both colors of Thorofare clothing?

I ask all these questions because I own both colors of Thorofare pants, and have noticed that the tan pair are translucent in strong sunlight, which I would have thought would reduce their UPF significantly. As mentioned previously, I'm highly susceptible to sunburn, so this isn't just an academic interest on my part.

I would be extremely surprised to find that translucent clothing had much of a UPF.