CONTENTS

Introduction
Human Skin Cancer
Sunscreen and Fabric
The Mouse Model of Cancer
Studies Using Skin Tissue
Drugs and Sunlight
Plant and Algae Growth
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography

Fabric Design

The Fabric Protection Team had expected there to be a straight forward correlation between measured UV transmission and the test verified FPF. This initial part of the research was supposed to involve three weeks of experimentation. They were then going to go on and design a fabric which was light and protective. That was the goal of the $20,000 grant. “But of course the complications of not being able to predict a fabrics FPF by transmission has made it impossible to consider design, until we know what's going on; what are the variables involved. So we are certainly looking for industry money to continue as we are right out of money.”

The actual physical design of the fabric would be done by Michael Pailthorpe and colleagues at the University of NSW, but it would be based on this work, looking at transmission and configuration factors. The difficulty in designing such a fabric is that it needs to be light and porous enough to breathe otherwise the humidity and moisture builds up. But then if it is porous and open, it allows the UV light in. It's not quite as difficult as the problem of designing a material that is waterproof and yet allows the sweat out. Trying to set up a one way valve for moisture is rather more difficult to do than setting up a barrier for light.

One idea is to have a two layer fabric with some support between so that the holes from the outer layer do not coincide with the inner holes. This would enable light to be blocked out without holding the moisture in.

Its difficult for the team to say how much money is needed to complete the research. “Until this last experiment we probably wouldn't have said we needed a great deal of money, most of the money would have been for designing the fabric. Now it could be anything to $5000 to $50,000. It just depends on the results of the experiments.”

Menzies feels frustrated “It was supposed to take three weeks and then we would go on and design a textile to wear yet we have not even got to the stage of considering anything like that.” However Lukins looks at this set back differently “It seems these things are more interesting than the design side in that if you can clarify them then it makes the design a fairly mechanical job.”

Scott admits “If transmission does predict protectiveness at least we've shown that it does and not just assumed it and that's worth while, and if transmission does not predict protectiveness then it also worth while because it means the ten papers already published may be baseless.”