Clothing is the single most effecti

Clothing is the single most effective form of sun protection, even more than sunscreen," said Zeichner, who is also director of cosmetic and clinical dermatology research at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. "Clothing is a physical blocker of the rays and sunscreen is applied to bare skin ."

Another reason sun protection garments beat sunscreen is because most people don't apply enough lotion and still consider themselves protected even after swimming or perspiring heavily, which dilutes sunscreen's effectiveness, Weinkle said.

"Very few people will be compliant enough to re-apply it," she said. "Sunscreens don't just stay on."

And with an ever-growing skin cancer rate more than 2 million Americans are diagnosed with some form of the malignancy each year we need to take advantage of every possible means of protection, Weinkle and Ziechner both said.