# UV Transmittance of Plastic Wrap



## Catfur (Oct 5, 2004)

Talk about UV for froglets has got me wondering about ways to get it to them with your basic froglet setup (rubbermaid tub). Does anybody know how well thin plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap) transmits UVB? I would guess pretty well since it's so thin.


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

Great question Clayton - never thought of that.

I have a few old acquaintances in the cham world who were very knowledgeable about UV transmission. I am going to drop one of them a line.


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## Dangerously (Dec 19, 2007)

Thickness doesn't have as much to do with UV transmission as the properties of the material. Keep in mind they can block almost 100% of UV rays with a very thin coating on your eyeglass lenses. 

Although, like you, I would guess that a clear (no tint) plastic film would allow transmission of a good deal of UV. But guesses don't count. I guess wrong at the lottery numbers every week. :wink:


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

These might be of some help:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/eng99/eng99272.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_wrap#Materials_used


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

This is probably of more help 

http://www.nature.com/jid/journal/v121/ ... 1932a.html 

Ed


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

I got some info regarding the transmission of UVB through saran wrap from Dave Weldon, a cham keeper. He has been very involved in measuring UVB transmission (from different brands of light sources, distance from light, through certain materials, etc.) for several years. 

Dave took some readings for us through plastic wrap/saran wrap and some other materials. Here is his message to me:



> I just took a few readings through some different kinds of "plastic."
> 
> Costco/Kirkland plastic wrap was about 95% of full UVB.
> 
> ...


I believe the readings were taken using a Solarmeter 6.2 UVB meter. I didn't ask what type of bulb the source of the UVB was from - but it shouldn't really matter.

So 95% transmission through plastic wrap looks pretty good.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Actually the bulb does matter 

see Gehrmann, W. H., D. Jamieson, G. W. Ferguson, J. D. Horner, T. C. Chen and M. F. Holick. 2004. A comparison of Vitamin D-Synthesizing ability of different ligh sources to irradiances measured with a solarmeter model 6.2 UVB meter. Herpetological Review. 35(4):361-364. 

Ed


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

I know that the bulb matters in the production of D3. I was saying that the brand of the bulb shouldn't make a difference in the amount of UVB that the saran wrap filters out. Although overall levels would be different between bulbs - by calculating % transmittance - that corrects for that variable.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Hi Oz,

Just making sure people understood that part.... 

However while the Saran wrap allows UVB penetration, people have to pay attention to the idea that the screening/eggcrating is going to affect the amount of UVB that passes through..


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

Also be aware that the plastic wrap is likely to become brittle over time (possibly a pretty short time). So I would check the integrity of the wrap weekly at least until you get enough experience with how long it will last.

Some day I intend to buy one of those meters to take the guess work out of things.


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