The Sunset Co. is fortunate to hail from Australia's Gold Coast.

A beautiful part of the world, with white sandy beaches bathed year round in golden sun-shine. On the flip side, the Gold Coast is known as the unofficial "skin cancer capital of the world".

That's why UPF protection is very important in our home town...

What is UPF?

UPF stands for Ultraviolet Protection Factor.

The UPF rating system measures how much of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation is absorbed by a fabric, and not by your skin. Similar to an SPF rating, commonly used in sun screens, the higher the UPF rating, the more you are protected.

For example, a UPF 20 rating means that only 1/20th of the sun's UV radiation will go through the fabric. So, by wearing a garment with a UPF rating of 20, you will reduce your skin's UV radiation exposure by 20 times.

A rating of UPF 50+ is the highest possible UPF rating.

The Sunset Co's unique "Shelter" Fabric is rated UPF 50+.

This means that when you are wearing a Sunset Co. garment, at worst, only 1/50th of the sun's UV radiation passes through to your skin. In other words, 98% protection, or better.

Excellent Sun Protection.

Testing Information:

Sun protection standards are set and monitored in Australia by an Australian Government agency called ARPANSA.

ARPANSA work with the Cancer Council Australia, SunSmart and other organisations to raise awareness of the dangers of sun exposure.

ARPANSA tests clothing, fabrics, hats and other materials to determine the UPF rating. UPF testing is done accordance with Australian Standard AS/NZS4399 'Sun protective clothing - Evaluation and classification' which was developed by Standards Australia (http://www.standards.org.au) and contains both the method for UPF testing and the labelling requirements for clothing that claims to offer sun protection. Copies of this standard are available from SAI Global Limited (http://infostore.saiglobal.com/store/Details.aspx?ProductID=382144).

Fabric is tested in ARPANSA's NATA accredited laboratories.

Fabric tests are very comprehensive and cover a range of items cover items including:

* UV Transmittance Characteristics
* Mean UVB Transmittance
* Mean UVA Transmittance
* Mean UPF
* Standard Deviation (this indicates how much variation in UPF rating there is across the surface of the material)
* Rated UPF
* Protection Category (this is the Protection Category assigned to the material tested. May be Good, UPF 15-24. Very good protection, UPF 25-39, or Excellent protection; UPF 40 to 50+.

The Sunset Co's unique "shelter" fabric has been independently tested by ARPANSA, and carries the best possible UPF rating, 50+.