If you’re like most people, you usually do not step out into the blazing-hot sun unless you have slapped on a good amount of spray or lotion to ward off the cancer-causing UV rays which bombard us when we go outside. And for many among us, this isn’t merely a case of slathering on sunscreen when we head to the beach or an outdoor all-day picnic—no, we need the stuff every day for our day at work or simple outdoor recreation.
According to new research from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, the chemicals in our sunscreen do not merely sit on top of our skin until we rinse it off. Instead, many of the active ingredients enter our bloodstream at levels far in excess of what was previously thought.
A report published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA found out that after applying spray, lotion, and cream, there’s a “systemic absorption of sunscreen active ingredients” well beyond the FDA’s recommended limits. While it’s still unclear what the effect of this seepage into our bloodstream is, the data support a need for further FDA investigation to determine precisely what the health impact of these findings are.
“Everyone had always thought that because these are intended to work on the surface of the skin that they wouldn’t be absorbed, but they are.”, said Theresa Michele, director of the FDA division of nonsprescription drug products and a coauthor of the study.
According to The Mind Unleashed, the data demonstrate how in our ongoing fight against skin cancer—the most common malignancy in the USA which affects an estimated 3.3 million people per year—we have applied vast amounts of sunscreen, considered an over-the-counter medication in the USA, without having tested what the health impact could be.
Researchers examined the concentration of four active ingredients in 24 participants’ bloodstreams, such as avobenzone, octocrylene, ecamsule, and oxybenzone. Participants were asked to apply one of four different types of sunscreen—lotion, cream, or spray—four times each day for four days on exposed skin that was uncovered by a swimsuit, as per recommended usage.
Notably, oxybenzone reached the plasma concentration threshold a mere two hours after a single application and exceeded 20 ng/mL by the seventh day of the study. What makes that alarming is that the lingering presence of the sun-filtering molecules in the bloodstream remains a mystery in terms of what this means for our bodies.
Sunscreen brands in the USA will now have to submit additional data regarding bloodstream absorption to the FDA. If the data indicates that sunscreen does not absorb beyond the toxicological threshold, makers will not have any problem. But if they do go beyond recommended limits, regulators will want to see what the potential risk is in terms of cancer, harm to the reproductive and endocrine systems, and other possible hazards.
Experts note that, despite the new study, the beneficial effects of sunscreen far outweigh the deadly risk of skin cancer. If the survey gives you pause, though, a wide array of natural mineral-based sunscreens are now on the market, while recipes for homemade natural alternatives can be found online. Protective clothing, sunglasses, and hats can also be used to minimize exposure to carcinogenic rays and, while we need to be cautious about which sunscreens to use, the new rules will not be finalized until November 2019.
COMMENTS