Sunscreens

I have used the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for research for a few years now and found them to be very helpful with skincare questions and understanding ingredients used in packaging. I understand the confusion of their report (see article below) but people have to take into account the toxic chemicals used in their products.

A wonderful brand called Keys has been created by a woman that suffered skin cancer. Natural oils are used for fragrance (if you looked at the EWG report's findings, you will notice that fragrance is a cause for concern in many of the ratings. The only issue with their spf product is it is not waterproof. It is great to use everyday but if you are out and about on the beach, by the pool or gardening, etc... it will not work.

Have you all noticed the horrible scent that has taken over the products found in drugstores and other mass stores? It is considered a "sea/water" scent but it makes me gag. It is so hard to find products that have not adopted its cloying smell. Dove products (liquid shower soaps - minus the fragrance free for sensitive skin), St. Ives Apricot Scrub (though, for now, Target brand has the original more natural smell), Secret - even the powder scent has the other smell lurking under the surface.... etc. Laundry detergent, fabric softeners, god forbid . What is the deal? Why has this smell become the overall go to for all of these more inexpensive brands. Oil of Olay is supposed to be great but I can't get past the smell. It is disgusting.

So it comes down to this: Does the smell mask the crazy chemicals used in these products? Or are companies dumbing down the scents because they feel that is what their consumers want?

For now I look to groups like EWG and follow my nose and buy brands that are more holistic and environmentally friendly in their practices.



Article from the NYTimes:

Sunscreen Safety Is Called Into Question

Stuart Bradford

“Patients are confused,” said Dr. Darrell S. Rigel, a clinical professor of dermatology at New York University who is a skin cancer researcher. “I’ve had patients come in and ask, ‘Am I harming myself by using it?’ I’ve spent a lot of time talking to people about it.”

The latest report comes from the Environmental Working Group, which claims that in an investigation of nearly 1,000 sunscreen products, four out of five offer inadequate protection from the sun or contain ingredients that may pose a health risk.

But dermatologists who reviewed the group’s research say the biggest problem is that it lacks scientific rigor. In particular, they are critical of a sunscreen rating system that they say is arbitrary and without basis in any accepted scientific standard.

“What they are doing is developing their own system for evaluating things,” said Dr. Warwick L. Morison, professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins and chairman of the Skin Cancer Foundation’s photobiology committee, which tests sunscreens for safety and effectiveness. “Using this scale to say a sunscreen offers good protection or bad protection is junk science.”

Dr. Morison has no financial ties to sunscreen makers, and his work with the Skin Cancer Foundation is unpaid.

Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group, said the database and rating system were based on an extensive review of the medical literature on sunscreens. Of nearly 1,000 sunscreens reviewed, the group recommends only 143 brands. Most are lesser-known brands with titanium and zinc, which are effective blockers of ultraviolet radiation. But they are less popular with consumers because they can leave a white residue.

The group is especially concerned about the safety of a compound called oxybenzone, which is used in most popular sunscreens. But the research on oxybenzone is limited.

Read the rest of the article >>