Children 'at risk from sun clothing'.

TODDLERS are being put at risk by clothing and equipment which fails to protect them from the sun's rays, research in Warwickshire reveals.

Tests by county trading standards officers on sun protection equipment and clothing for children revealed poor design and a lack of labelling.

They tested 30 products from high street stores, including swim/body suits, hats, tops, pushchair shades and garden and beach shades.

Six pushchair parasols and sunshades were tested for their ability to protect the user from the sun's UV rays and only one was labelled with an ultraviolet protection factor rating.

Others found to range from a factor 7 to 26 did not give parents any indication of the protection offered. One even had holes in the material as part of the design, allowing UV rays through - and some of the shades were too small to cover the whole child.

Five of the six garden and beach shades did offer a protection factor of 50+, but in some cases their design or lack of information let them down.

A garment labelled UPF 50 would reduce the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the covered skin to a 50th of that reaching bare skin. But some items that gave adequate protection did not include this information.