SOLUTIA SUNSCREEN Solutia Inc. offers sunscreen for your car’s interior.

    DETROIT, June 18 Summer is just around the corner.  And
you're car is about to get burned.  A blazing summer sun can cause
irreversible damage and discoloration to plastics and cloth inside your
vehicle, due to ultraviolet rays (UV) that penetrate ordinary auto glass.
Solutia Inc. offers a new product that acts as a sunscreen,
protecting your vehicle's interior.  Enhanced Protective Glass (EPG), a new
category of automotive glass for side and rear windows, and sunroofs, provides
that critical UV protection by sandwiching a layer of its polyvinyl butyral
(PVB) interlayer -- essentially a layer of plastic -- between two sheets of
glass.
    
"It's well known that the sun can be brutal -- even harmful -- to your
skin," says Vicki Holt, vice president of Solutia's Performance Films
Division.  "But think about your car -- one of your biggest investments:
Imagine yourself on a trip to the beach -- ready for all that fun in the sun.
You take care to protect yourself and your family:  you bring an umbrella for
shade -- you coat the kids' skin with sunscreen, and for the next several
hours, you have a great time.
    
"Your car doesn't have the luxury of all that protection.  There it sits
in the parking lot, the sun beating down unmercifully, just soaking up the UV
rays, fading and deteriorating the interior.  But like a good sunscreen, EPG
can block out those rays."
    
Tests measuring UVB and UVA transmissions, conducted by the Australian
Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPNSA) rated ordinary,
tempered auto glass as having an Ultraviolet Protection Factor of 45.  When
tested -- EPG was rated with a UPF that is 7 times more effective than
ordinary auto glass at blocking UV rays.  ARPNSA is the agency that creates
standards against which most European sunscreens are rated.
    
EPG is available on 18 vehicle platforms around the world, with up to nine
more slated to offer the glass this year.  EPG can be standard, as on the
Audi A8, or can be ordered as optional equipment.  Manufacturers that offer
EPG include:  Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler (on both Mercedes and certain
Chrysler models), Lexus and Volvo.  More information on EPG can be found at
solutia-autoglass.com.

    Solutia Inc., an independent, publicly owned enterprise headquartered in
St. Louis, Missouri, has a major presence in both national and international
markets.  It is the world's largest producer of the PVB plastic interlayer
that is used to manufacture the laminated glass used in automotive,
architectural and residential applications throughout the world, and the only
producer of PVB for aircraft -- the most demanding application.  The company's
other businesses include man-made fibers, resins, aviation hydraulic fluids,
high-performance specialty chemicals and other performance products.
Information about Solutia Inc. may be found at http://www.solutia.com.