Sunscreen Safety

Recently, the relative safety of sunscreens has been making headlines and it is certainly a cause for concern for everyone. An explanation is in order to put the concerns in their proper perspective.  Sunscreens have been shown to protect users from pre-malignant sun damage, pre-mature skin aging and basal and squamous cell and basal cell skin cancers and are an important tool in letting us enjoy the outdoors with less risk over our lifetime. So, what is the question.?  The FDA requires that any of the twelve commonly used sunscreen protective ingredients must be tested for safely if the blood levels of the ingredients exceed 5 ng/ml, when tested.  The testing had not been done when the FDA solicited information from sunscreen manufacturers, so the NIH designed and carried out their own experiments, looking at the four most commonly used sun-protective compounds. They used two different spray on sunscreens, a cream and a lotion applied four times a day for seven days, with blood levels drawn for sampling 30 times.  The ingredients – oxybenzone. avobenzone, octocrylene and ecamsule – levels all dramatically exceeded the 5ng/ml limit, even the first day of use.

It is still unknown if the ingredients are completely safe, until further safety studies are done. In the interim, the FDA has urged people to continue sunscreen use regularly.  The agents tested can be avoided by using mineral sunscreens with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which have been shown to be completely safe and to not be absorbed through skin when used in sunscreens. What is the catch?  Every one of Consumer Reports top sunscreens in each category of sunscreens tested contain one of the four ingredients tested.  The mineral sunscreens did not fare that well in the testing as the top choices.  In other words, they do not protect your skin as well from sun damage.

If you choose to use mineral sunscreens, what else can you do? You can minimize sun exposure from 10am-4pm, reapply the sunscreen used as directed, wear SPF clothing and hats available from many sport clothing manufacturers, wear polarized sunglasses and take Polypodium leucotomas capsules, that have been shown to reduce the sun changes to skin from exposure. Or you can use the best sunscreens until safety questions are resolved.  The consensus is that the agents are safe, but the decision to use them or not is yours.