Do ultraviolet rays pass through curtains, etc?

Question

I have a bedsheet hung over a window. Its thread count is high, but some visible light still pokes through in the morning when the sun is rising. As someone whose skin is extremely averse to UV rays, is this a cause for worry? I don't want to be sitting in the sun at my desk all morning. Do I need to put up another sheet or something?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Yep.

Answer 3

I'd reckon that if light is passing through the bedsheet, UVA rays are passing through it too.  If you're worried about it, you can put a film on the window to block essentially all the UV light.

According to multiple sources (NASA, FDA, and others) here are the wavelengths of the UVA, UVB and UVC regions:

UVA 400 nm - 320 nm

UVB 320 nm - 290 nm

UVC 290 nm - 100 nm

UVC is blocked by Ozone in the atmosphere and we'll not see very much of it to worry about.

UVB is what is mainly responsible for causing sunburn and is blocked by standard glass windows.

UVA is 20 times more abundant than UVB and can pass through glass.  UVA affects long term skin damage and may lead to melanomas.

There are window films you can get that are like stickers to put on windows which block UVA radiation.  The following website shows a list of manufacturers (sorry but it's a distributor's website).  Most of them have dealers in many areas and are professionally installed.  One dealer (Gila) has film you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot for $30 for a sheet, but Gila's website didn't specifically say if the light blocked was UVA & UVB (one would think so since it's applied to a window).

http://www.cpfilms.com/windowfilms.html

A window film will be more appealing than a bedsheet.  

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

some UV rays will pass through a bedsheet, but not many. You don't get a sunburn on clothing covered skin do you? - it's the same thing.

most UV will not even pass through glass, you should be okay.

The heat you feel sitting in front of a window is IR, which is not dangerous to your skin (in small amounts). You won't feel UV until you burn, when a cloud passes over head it blocks IR, but not UV, this is why it feels cooler but you can still get burned because the cloud unlike windows and bedsheets does not block UV.

Answer 5

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