How do environmental conditions like humidity and physical activity affect repellent duration?
Answer
Sweat and humidity can wash the repellent away, reducing the effective duration
Protection times indicated on product labels are often derived from ideal, low-activity laboratory conditions. In real-world scenarios, factors such as high ambient humidity and the moisture produced by heavy physical exertion cause the active ingredients to be washed away from the skin surface. Consequently, users often need to reapply repellents more frequently, perhaps every two to four hours, regardless of the maximum duration claimed on the packaging.
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