Surprising Sunscreen News

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about sunscreens among my friends. Turns out some contain ingredients that may disrupt the way hormones work in our bodies or actually do more harm than good when it comes to skin cancer.

With all the unknowns around increasing rates of everything from autism to type 2 diabetes in kids, a lot of parents are nervous about everything that goes onto and into their children. A few years ago, I was hearing similar “what-if” stories from the eco-parent types who were avoiding plastic drinking cups and bottles due to concerns about bisphenol A (which the government’s National Toxicology Program puts in the “some concern” category for developmental toxicity). Back when they first started talking about BPA, few of us knew what it was – and now, of course, BPA is pretty much a household term among families with infants and toddlers.  I suspect things could go the same way for oxybenzone in sunscreens.

Since my boys are very fair and burn easily, we are high-quantity consumers of sunscreens. But until I read this article from the Los Angeles Times, I didn’t realize the Environmental Working Group puts out an annual sunscreen guide that tests for just these types of potentially harmful chemicals. Among the 500 sunscreens it tested this year, only 8 percent met its recommendations. More than 60 percent contained oxybenzone, which some experts say shouldn’t be used on children; 40 percent had a problem I’d never heard about, a type of vitamin A that may actually be involved in skin cancer. And then there’s zinc oxide, a mineral which is toxic when absorbed by the body and appears in about 20 percent of sun protection products on the market … but most research to date says that it’s not absorbed through sunscreen application.

In addition, some sunscreens with a sun protection factor of more than 50 may be exaggerating their effectiveness. That's because unless they contain a mineral like zinc oxide, they don’t protect against UVA rays.

The EWG report also pointed out that most of us under-apply sunscreen, which makes it less effective than the label says it will be.

Yikes. The first thing I did was read the active ingredients in the sunscreen my kids prefer, Walgreens Sheer Dry-Touch Sunscreen. And one of them was oxybenzone, so now I am searching for a replacement. Fortunately, the EWG lists its test results, making it easy for parents to see where their current sunscreens fall in terms of risk – and it shows which ones earn its approval.

And in case you’re thinking to heck with it all, we’re staying indoors until school starts, the EWG points out that kids should get some sunshine so their bodies can make the vitamin D they need. The safest way to be out and about is to wear a hat and shirt and avoid long exposure during the sun’s peak.

Avoiding the St. Louis summer weather between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. is one recommendation I’m only too happy to follow.  Maybe I’ll spend that time shopping online for new sunscreens … turns out some of the ones the EWG recommends are made by small manufacturers who’ve already sold out.

By Amy De La Hunt, Health Blogger for SmartParenting