Sunburn Indicator Strip Could Be a Real Lifesaver

iStock/Thinkstock(BELFAST, Northern Ireland) — One doesn’t normally think of Ireland as the sun and fun capital of Europe but like anywhere else, people do get sunburned there.

That’s what might have spurred a Queen’s University Belfast chemical engineering professor to come up with technology that gives sunbathers an important signal about when to get out of the sun.

Dr. David Hazafy’s sunburn indicator is a strip of plastic that can be worn as a bracelet and adapts to one’s skin type.

The strip has what Hazafy calls “smart” ink, which starts off as a blue color but then gradually becomes clear, a sign that the sunbather has reached a point where ultraviolet light will start to burn the skin.

Hazafy says the key to his invention is a metal oxide photocatalyst that harvests ambient sunlight, which in turn, “should warn people when they are receiving too much of the UV component of sunlight, and prompt them to seek shade.”

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