Jan 15, 2009

Jeremy Lees likes to joke that Oregon Health & Science University should have a suite named after him for how much time he spends there.

“I go up there with a positive attitude,” he said of the regular treks he makes from his Beaverton home to the health center on the hill.

Lees, 34, has a rare skin condition called Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), which means his skin doesn’t have the ability to repair damage by ultraviolet light. Unfortunately, UV light comes through clouds, pours through windows, and is even expressed from fluorescent lights, so Lees isn’t even safe from the sun inside his own house and regularly suffers from various kinds of skin cancers.

That is, until last Friday.

Lees’ house got significantly safer when Clear Innovations Oregon, a Milwaukie window company, came to install 3M light reflective film on all the windows of his house. The film blocks out about 99 percent of harmful UV rays and reduces glare, which is important because Lees’ eyes are sensitive to bright light.

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