Holy Heatstroke!

Study finds 80 percent of sunscreens don’t really work.

ERIC WAHLGREN
The Journal of Life Sciences

As a kid, I was always out in the sun a lot because I was on swim and water polo teams. Thanks to my Swedish and Irish genes, I never really tanned—I just burned. But in my crowd, putting sunscreen on was for wimps, so I usually went without the stuff and suffered the consequences.

I’ve wizened up in my old age. Nowadays, I don’t give a hoot if I look like a snowman on the beach after applying multiple layers of SPF 40. Even when I suit up to go to the office, I coat my face with a moisturizer containing SPF 15. So a recent study that finds the majority of sunscreens aren’t doing their job of protecting us from the sun had me shuddering under my beach towel.

The non-profit environmental research firm Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C. investigated 952 name-brand sunscreens, finding four out of five don’t provide adequate protection from the sun. What’s more, these 80 percent contain ingredients with “significant” safety concerns, according to the group’s report.

On a recent vacation to Hawaii, I packed my bags filled with Coppertone SPORT. Turns out, none of the No. 1 sunscreen maker’s 41 sunscreens products meets Environmental Working Group’s criteria for safety and effectiveness. And the group recommends only one of 103 sunscreens made by No. 2 Banana Boat and No. 3 Neutrogena.

Environmental Working Group says its assessment is based on “detailed review of hundreds of scientific studies, industry models of sunscreen efficacy, and toxicity and regulation information housed in nearly 60 government, academic and industry databases.”

One of the main problems, according to the report? Many products lack protection against UVA radiation—the deeply penetrating sun rays linked to skin damage and aging, as well as, potentially, skin cancer. Most just shield us from UVB radiation, which causes sunburn, a well-known skin cancer precursor. The other main worry: the group says many sunscreens—especially spray and powder ones—contain nano-scale ingredients that raise concerns because of potentially harmful properties. Environmental Working Group says ones that contain nano-scale zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are safe.

With all this to fret about, I checked the list to see where my face goo—Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Moisturizer, SPF15—that I pay a pretty penny for stood in the rankings. Number 392. On a scale of one to 10 with 10 being the highest hazard, it got an overall score of five, classifying it as a “moderate hazard.”

Now for the good news: the report identified 143 products it says have good protection and ingredients with few health risks. Even better for cheapskates like me, some of the recommended common brands include CVS and Walgreens.

The group places a lot of the blame for the cloudy sunscreen situation on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The regulatory body needs to finalize its sunscreen safety standards—it hasn’t done so despite 30 years of debate, Environmental Working Group says. It also needs to approve new sunscreen chemicals—some of which have been under review for more than a decade, the group says. The FDA has approved 17 sunscreen chemicals in the U.S. vs. 29 approved by the European Union, according to the report. Yet more incentive to go to Sardinia for your next beach vacation.