What does the SPF in sunscreen stand for?
We selected two essential keywords from your question, “sunscreen SPF” and plugged them right in to Yahoo!’s search box. The results came in the form of a web site from Yahoo!’s directory, in a category called Public Health and Safety > Sun Safety. We made a quick mental note of the category path (telling us where in the directory the site was located), and then headed off to Sun Protection.org, a public service web site from the L’Oral Research Group. The site was soothingly informative and non-commercial. On a hot pink glossary page we found a definition of SPF: it stands for “sun protection factor” and it’s a measure of how long you can stay exposed to the sun without burning. We learned that if you begin to tan or burn after 10 minutes, an SPF of 15 extends your protection 15 times longer. Ouch. T
