Karla has been working like a horse just to buy herself a pair of shades to invoke jealousy and admiration among her upper class, socialite friends. As it is, she is splurging too much beyond what she earns, and she is investing in things rather mindlessly. Last night, for example, she invested in a pair of sunglasses from an eminent spectacle maker, but she didn't know what one has to look for while buying these sunglasses.

All that matters to her was the brand, the design and whether it accentuates the beauty of her face and thirdly, whether it comes with a price tag, high enough to start turning the gossip mills. What she doesn't realize is that by wearing just about any pricey shades in the present weather, will not necessarily give her the requisite protection from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun and she just might do herself more harm than good. Someone has to stop her. You can if you know what the right way out is and this article is intended to boost your status up to that of a hero, in Karla's minds.

A preliminary knowledge about the sun and its harmful radiations would be good. Very few people know that the sun emits three very harmful rays called the ultraviolet rays, the infra red rays and the cosmic rays. Each of them is dubbed harmful because they adversely manipulate one or the other aspect of the ecology and push us more nearer to the brink of doom. Cosmic rays are responsible for the harmful radioactive changes we are exposed to everyday, they cause a transformation of the organic tissue in our body and transforms normal substances into carcinogens.

Infrared rays can send a person completely blind, they aren't as harmful as ultraviolet rays but they can worsen the damaging effect of the sun in places situated near water bodies and snow features of the landscape. And finally the question of the harmful ultraviolet rays and how they have wreaked havoc among various kinds of living beings. Very few people are aware of the fact that UV rays are of three types-ultraviolet rays A, which cause sun related drug reactions and the UVB which causes cataract. The UVC is not heard of so much in reports because it is mostly filtered by the clouds and other tropospherical weather features. Anthropological factors like global warming and atom bombs and deforestation has led to a massive ozone hole in the stratosphere which is causing the high number of UV related diseases and skin cancer.

Specifications of Your Sunglass

A good pair of sunglasses should be able to block 99-100 percent of UV light. For someone trying to find sunglasses that provide the highest level of protection, look for brands that have UV absorption of up to 400 nanometers and those that meet ANSI UV requirements. In terms of tint, yellow lenses are rated 97 percent and clear-colored glasses are at 80 percent in terms of UV and infrared radiation protection.