Sunscreen for construction workers

01 · The work

Out in it all shift

Ironworkers on the deck, finishers on the slab, framers, roofers, laborers. The hard hat covers the top of your head, and that’s about it. The neck, ears, face and forearms take the sun all day, and the hands take everything else: wet concrete, grease, tar and grime.

Heat stacks on top of the sun. A shift in July puts a crew through hours of it with no shade on the steel.

OSHA’s heat guidance comes down to three words: water, rest, shade.OSHA, Heat Exposure

02 · Sun and heat

Two kinds of UV, two depths

• UVB
• UVA

UVB (280–320 nm) works on the outer layer of skin and is the main cause of sunburn. UVA (320–400 nm) reaches the deep layers of the dermis. About 95% of the UV that reaches the ground is UVA, and it gets through clouds and glass.

Heat makes it worse in a practical way: you sweat, and sweat and toweling off take sunscreen with them. Protection that holds through sweat, and a reapply schedule, matter as much as the SPF number.

Source: R&R Lotion, Skin Cancer white paper (2024), pp. 3 and 5.

03 · What develops

Sunburn, DNA damage, cement burns

• Damage
• Wet cement

UV damages the DNA in skin cells. Over years of exposure, that damage and the cell’s repair errors raise the risk of skin cancer and age the skin early. Sunburn is the part you can see.

The three common skin cancers are basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. Check your skin with the ABCDE rule: asymmetry, irregular border, uneven color, diameter over 6 mm, and any change.

Wet cement is very alkaline and can burn skin, especially when it’s trapped against the skin inside a glove or a boot. The chromium in cement can also cause allergic contact dermatitis.

Sources: R&R Lotion, Skin Cancer white paper (2024), pp. 6, 7 and 9; CPWR / eLCOSH, Physician’s Alert: Skin Conditions.

04 · Why we built it

Built for the deck and the slab

Crews need a sunscreen that holds up to sweat, doesn’t leave a greasy film on tools and gloves, and isn’t a flammable aerosol. And at the end of the day they need a hand cleaner strong enough for job-site grime, then something for hands that are dry and cracked from it.

SPF and 80-minute water resistance were tested by an independent lab, AMA Laboratories, under the FDA method.AMA Laboratories, Lab No. N-0479 (2013)

No cream makes wet cement safe on bare skin. Waterproof gloves and a fast rinse come first.

05 · On the job

When to put it on

1. 1
   Start of shiftSunscreen 15 minutes before you’re in the sun, applied liberally to the neck, ears, face, forearms and the backs of your hands.
2. 2
   Every 2 hoursReapply at least every 2 hours, after 80 minutes of sweating, and right after you towel off. Water, rest and shade on the same breaks.
3. 3
   Wet cement on skinRinse it off with clean water right away. Don’t let wet concrete sit inside gloves or boots.
4. 4
   End of shiftHeavy Duty Hand Cleaner at the wash station, rinse, then Advanced Repair Hand Cream on dry, chapped hands.

Follow the Drug Facts on the sunscreen and your site’s heat-illness and PPE plan.