Is your sunscreen setting you up for cancer? Quite possibly. For how else can you explain the meteoric rise of skin cancers in countries where sunscreens are heavily propagated, and everyone slathers cupfuls of sunscreens each time they see a ray of sunlight?
A study by the Environmental Working Group found that one in every eight name-brand sunscreens offers virtually zero protection against UVA rays which cause sunburns and ultimately lead to skin cancer. UVA radiation causes premature aging at a somewhat slower rate than the others, but this type of radiation causes melanoma, a very dangerous type of skin cancer. UVA is not blocked by many conventional sunscreens but can be effectively blocked by physical sunscreens and clothing.
SPF, or sun protection rating, only measures the sunscreen's effectiveness in blocking ultraviolet B (UVB) rays.
The incidence of sunburns has increased in the United States, a sign the many people aren't using proper sun protection. A recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that sunburn rates increased from 31.8 percent to 33.7 percent from 1999 to 2004.
The National Cancer Institute estimates there will be 62,480 new cases of melanoma in the United States in 2008, and about 8,420 deaths caused by the disease. By comparison, there will be more than 1 million new cases of non-melanoma skin cancers in 2008, with fewer than 1,000 deaths. (MedicineNet.org)
Worldwide, the countries where chemical sunscreens have been recommended and adopted have experienced the greatest rise in skin cancers, with a simultaneous rise in death rates.
In the United States, Canada, Australia, and the Scandinavian countries, melanoma rates have skyrocketed, with the greatest increase occurring after the introduction of sunscreens at the end of the 1970s. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, death rates in the United States from melanoma doubled in women and tripled in men between the 1950s and the 1990s; yet melanoma remains a relatively rare type of cancer, killing twenty times fewer people than lung cancer.
Could it be that sunscreens promote skin cancers instead of preventing them? Absolutely not, but there is something about sunscreens that needs careful attention. One explanation could be the ineffectiveness of sunscreens made in the 1980s and 1990s. Older formulations did not provide protection from all spectrums of the sun radiation. Those sunscreens shielded more from burning UVB rays but did almost nothing about the more damaging UVA exposure. Both UVA and UVB types of sun radiation have been shown to mutate DNA and promote skin cancers in animals. UVA also penetrates deeper and stimulates melanocytes at a much higher rate, yet for some reason UVA dangers were ignored.
Slathered in sunscreen, people stayed in the sun longer without having proper protection, often over a period of ten or twenty years, before clinical symptoms of skin cancer appeared.
"Most cancers in the United States are skin cancer, and incidences are rising, while the incidences of most other types of cancer are remaining stable or going down," Dr. Martin Weinstock, a professor of dermatology at Brown University Medical School, said to HealthDay. "The most important avoidable cause we know about is exposure to ultraviolet radiation."
U.S. Food and Drug Administration now plans to set standards for labeling sunscreens for UVA protection as well as for UVB. "Ratings for UVA would be based on two tests, one to measure the sunscreen's ability to reduce the amount of UVA radiation passing through it, and a second to measure the product's ability to prevent tanning and potential long-term skin damage," MedicineNet says in an article by Dennis Thompson of HealthDay.
However, Environmental Working Group insists that unless the formulations change completely, such measures won't do any good. According to their research, most sunscreens have problems with toxic hazards, for they contain tons of chemical ingredients that break down, interact with each other, penetrate the bloodstream, accumulate in the body, and develop toxic and even genotoxic components.
Meanwhile, choose sunscreens made with minerals that reflect all types of sun radiation, including UVA and UVB. Unlike chemical sunscreens that dislodge under UV exposure releasing toxic compounds into our bloodstream, mineral sunscreens sit on top of our skin and do not break under UV pressure.
