American standards for UV-protective textiles.

During the last 3 years, three standard documents that pertain to the testing and labeling of UV-protective textile products have been published by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC). The titles of these documents, which are available for purchase at www.astm.org and www.aatcc.org are: ASTM D 6544 "Standard Practice for the Preparation of Textiles Prior to UV Transmission Testing", AATCC 183 "Test Method for Transmittance or Blocking of Erythemally Weighted Ultraviolet Radiation Through Fabrics", and ASTM 6603 "Standard Guide to Labeling of UV-protective Textiles". This chapter summarizes the content of each document and shows how the documents are linked together to make a comprehensive plan for the testing and labeling of UV-protective textile products to be sold in the United States. It also describes the intended future work in the United States on UV-protective textile standards.