As The FDA Sunscreen Report Is Published There Is Concern Over Chemicals – Part 1

Sunscreens Help Protect From The Sun 

Six common active ingredients are absorbed into the body and may linger for days or even weeks in some cases as the new FDA testing of sunscreens shows. 

Increasing the blood levels of these active ingredients beyond the FDA’s threshold for determining if they need more study to be considered safe to use, is the testing showing that can do with a single application of the sunscreen available as a lotion or a spray. 

Alok Vij, MD, a dermatologist at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio further states that as they just don’t know what the biological effect of sunscreen in your blood is, it is a little bit scary as he was not involved in the study.

Leading to fertility problems, poor birth outcomes for babies, and perhaps cancer is the previous research showing that some of the ingredients in the FDA study cause disrupting hormones. 

How Sunscreens Escaped Safety Testing?

To protect the skin from the sun’s baking rays, many Americans dutifully rub or spray sunscreen on their skin. 

Almost anyone who is heading outdoors has heard the message that sunscreen is an important part of protecting skin from sunburns, aging, and skin cancer after decades of public health education. Nearly a $2 billion-a-year industry in the US is in fact sun care. 

To sell their products under the assumption that the active ingredients they use are GRASE or generally recognised as safe and effective the FDA has allowed sunscreen makers.

The FDA began requiring manufacturers to do more safety testing of the products in case they could be absorbed into the body at levels above 0.5 nanograms per millilitre several decades ago. There’s thought to be a minimal risk that an ingredient or drug could cause harm below that level. 

KanadeShinkai, MD, Ph.D., a dermatologist at the University of California, San Francisco notes that sunscreen has been around for a lot longer than that, as these standards were set in the last couple of decades. Whereas she was not involved in the research Shinkai wrote an editorial on the current study.  

Sunscreen essentially got grandfathered into the FDA’s surveillance system even without any real safety testing as a result. 

Shinkai explains that urging the companies that make sunscreens to do more of the safety studies of their products whereas for various reasons it just never happened is the agency. 

Deciding to take on the question of body absorption of sunscreen ingredients is the FDA with a small research division. 

After that testing revealed that four of the most common UV filters in the chemical sunscreens like avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, and ecamsule are thereby absorbed by the body in substantial amounts staying there for days which is something that wasn’t well-known before as the agency dropped a bit of bombshell last year. Here the progress is just 0%.

The History Of Sunscreen

The FDA further states that those four ingredients coming together with eight others need more safety testing even before they can be considered GRASE. To do that testing it has asked the sunscreen makers. Supposed to look at effects on cancer and reproduction are those studies that haven’t been done. 

The FDA gave sunscreen makers a November 2019 deadline to deliver more information is the truth of the matter. 

Saying that most people don’t reapply that often as well as the conditions tested in the study were unrealistic, instead of that, some criticised the FDA’s initial testing methods that had study volunteers reapply their sunscreens every 2 hours for 4 days. 

This time including six active ingredients in chemical sunscreens: avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, octisalate, and octinoxate in response the FDA redid the study. Screening out the sun’s harmful rays are these ingredients. 

They were found testing aerosol and pump lotions and sprays. Applying the sunscreens to 75% of their bodies virtually anywhere, a swimsuit wouldn’t cover, they had 48 healthy adults half were men and half were women. 

Follow The Article In The Next Part 

There are many ways in which sunscreens help take care of your skin when basking in the sun. To avoid the dangers of cancer and other skin related problems, it is always recommended to wear a good sunscreen. 

The FDA has often questioned the credibility and safety of the sunscreens available in the market and over-the-counter. While many dermatologists suggest the use of prescription drugs, it also helps get good protection from the heat and sun. In the next post, we delve more into the depths of sunscreen and its importance on the skin as a barrier to the sun.