UVARG OR SUNBATHING WITH CAUTION

It’s a software developed in Argentina to fight against skin cancer caused by long expositions under the sun. Perhaps, when it is further developed it will be useful for travellers.




Last Saturday, as it was raining a lot in Madrid, instead of going to the cinema, that was the plan we had, we stayed at home to watch a movie. But while the movie was been downloaded from the Internet (it takes you a while) we saw some chapters of Eduard Punset’s programme. I knew that this Sir existed and I knew too that his programmes were very interesting, but I had never watched them. And it was really worth it. I have only watched three chapters, one of them was about gifted people, another one was about Human behaviour and the third one was about something called “Meme” (this last one drives you crazy with a strange mixture of Philosophy and Science), all of them very very interesting.

The fact is that in each chapter, dedicated to a matter, there is a general news section always related to Science. It was in one of these news that I knew about this software called UVARG.
It is a computer application with which you can know how long you can stay exposed to the sun, in any time and anywhere in the world. Actually, as it was said in REDES (this is the name for Punset’s programme on TV) nowadays it can only be used in Argentina, although it’s expected to be ready for the whole world in the future.

I cannot talk you from my experience because after searching and searching on the Internet I had not been able to find the Software but allegedly, ones you have gotten it, you specify your skin type, time, place and kind of floor (sand, water, etc) when you are going to be and you will know almost instantly how long, as a maximum, you may be exposed to the sun without any risk for your skin.

UVARG was created by Physics Institute of Rosario (IFIR), in Argentina, with the collaboration of the Innsbruck University in Austria (by the way, what good memories for Spanish people from Innsbruck…) and the Argentinean Skin Cancer Foundation.
The best thing for us, the travellers, is that you can obtain information long before, even months, so it can become a very useful tool when planning our trips, especially for those who have the skins white, like me.

According with its creators if we respect the exposure times that the application suggest, we are less likely to have a skin cancer.
Anyway, I think that sunbathing with caution only depends on your common sense. Some people prefer to take a bit of colour and other people are happy walking along the beach like a “Melanoma-Man” o “Melanoma-Woman”.

Etiquetas: English, Noticias, utilidades, UVARG