Chemical sunscreens are definitely effective in preventing sunburn, but at what cost to our greater health?
Chemical sunscreens have been in use for many decades now, and oddly enough skin cancer rates are highest in those parts of the world where sunscreens are the most heavily used and promoted by the medical community. (See a PDF article about this here.)
If a combination of chemicals is strong enough to block the sun from tanning your skin, what else may it be doing to your skin, and could it be seeping into your body, blood and organs?
It doesn't seem that there's been that much research conducted as to the safety of sunscreens. But here's a summary of one University of California study done a couple of years ago, that concludes that "three commonly used ultraviolet (UV) filters -- octylmethoxycinnamate, benzophenone 3 and octocrylene -- eventually soak into the deeper layers of the skin after their application, leaving the top skin layers vulnerable to sun damage. UV rays absorbed by the skin can generate harmful compounds called reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can cause skin cancer and premature aging. The researchers found that once the filters in sunscreen soak into the lower layers of skin, the filters react with UV light to create more damaging ROS.
Chemical sunscreens are definitely effective in preventing sunburn, but at what cost to our greater health?
Chemical sunscreens have been in use for many decades now, and oddly enough skin cancer rates are highest in those parts of the world where sunscreens are the most heavily used and promoted by the medical community. (See a PDF article about this here.)
If a combination of chemicals is strong enough to block the sun from tanning your skin, what else may it be doing to your skin, and could it be seeping into your body, blood and organs?
It doesn't seem that there's been that much research conducted as to the safety of sunscreens. But here's a summary of one University of California study done a couple of years ago, that concludes that "three commonly used ultraviolet (UV) filters -- octylmethoxycinnamate, benzophenone 3 and octocrylene -- eventually soak into the deeper layers of the skin after their application, leaving the top skin layers vulnerable to sun damage. UV rays absorbed by the skin can generate harmful compounds called reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can cause skin cancer and premature aging. The researchers found that once the filters in sunscreen soak into the lower layers of skin, the filters react with UV light to create more damaging ROS.