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Unintended Consequences, or a Lack of Design? One-Sided Sun Exposure for Vehicle Drivers

By Rain Noe - June 5, 2012

in Cars

To what extent do our environments render us assymetrical, and what role does design play? Sometimes we have to sit along the wall of a movie theater or the window seat of a cramped plane, temporarily making body parts sore on one side. But we only suffer those maladies for a matter of hours. The guy above has been driving a delivery truck for nearly 30 years, and by the condition of his face you can tell whether he was driving it in the United States or the United Kingdom.

Since being posted in the New England Journal of Medicine, the shocking photo has been making the blog rounds as an example of what they're calling "photoaging," or the clearly negative effects of prolonged sunlight exposure. With all of the truck drivers in the United States alone, I'm surprised we don't see more of this. But it does make you wonder if designers of vehicles meant to be driven for long stretches, as a career, ought take into consideration that more sunlight is coming in on one side. I doubt anything can be done for this man's face, but surely future generations of truckers deserve some sort of well-designed protection from assymetrical UV exposure.

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kat

12 years ago

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Windows will filter UVB rays but the aging as above is caused by UVA which is not filtered by glass.
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adora

12 years ago

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Most passenger car windows are UV filtering, to reduce heat, but you will always get more sun on one side than the other I suppose.

I'm not too shocked by the study. The real reason most East Asians look younger is the love for pale skin. (and low rate of smoking) Most Asian women would not leave the house without wearing sunscreen.
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