Avoiding Toxins – Sunscreen
There are lots of bad things that go in sunscreen, but I want to talk about three of them in a bit of detail.
First, let’s talk about retinyl palmitate. Studies have found that tumors developed 21 percent faster in lab animals coated in retinyl palmitate cream than in animals coated in an identical cream without the retinyl palmitate. Doctors are saying things like, “It’s ridiculous to try to equate animals to humans, I’m telling my patients not to use retinyl palmitate on their pet rats.” Retinyl palmitate is a form of vitamin A, no one thought it would push cancer growth, it seems bizarre. However, estrogen is something we need also, but adding more of it into our systems usually isn’t good, unless there is some reason we need more. There are things that our bodies need on the inside that we shouldn’t be slathering on the outside – things that soak into the skin and into our bloodstream in forms our body can’t deal with. So, for now, I’m avoiding retinyl palmitate until we get more data.
Next, oxybenzone – it’s been linked to hormone disruption, it’s an endocrine disruptor, it causes cell mutation, and it accumulates in your body. Ninety seven percent of Americans have it in their urine. EWG still has a CDC statement about it from 2008 up, here. Or, this one is longer, but goes into more of what’s wrong with this chemical.
And finally, Octinoxate sometimes listed as octyl methoxycinnamate. This one blocks UVB, not UVA, meaning (for a short time) it protects you from a sunburn, but not from UVA portion of the spectrum. Their are a few problems, though. One of them is that it isn’t stable in sunlight – when exposed to sunlight it converts into a much less UV absorbent form. Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? It has bigger problems, though. It absorbs through the skin, and (like oxybenzone) it enhances the absorption rates of the other things in the sunscreen. It also produces estrogen like effects and there are a lot of people who think that women and children shouldn’t be putting it on their skin. This is another chemical with conflicting results, often depending on who is paying for the study.
These aren’t the worst three, but they are the three that show up the most that I feel should be avoided, with the current data we have on them. Brands that use one or more of these three chemicals include Hawaiian Tropic, Bull Frog, Banana Boat, Kiss My Face, Neutrogena, Coppertone, Coppertone Water Babies, Panama Jack, Aveeno, Huggies Little Swimmers, CVS store brand, Walgreens store brand, the No-Ad brand… it’s a long list. Some of the brands have multiple lines, some with and some without – some just have the dangerous cocktail version.
As for sunscreens without cancer causing and estrogen creating toxins, here are some:
- Adorable Baby SPF 30+ Sunscreen Non-Nano Zinc Oxide UVA/UVB
- Aubrey Organics Sun Care Products
- Badger SPF 30 Plus Sunscreen All Season Face Stick Unscented
- California Baby SPF 30 + Sunscreen Lotion – Super Sensitive
(or not, read comments)
- Thinkbaby sunscreen SPF30+
That’s a start. The thing is, the chemicals in most of the inexpensive sunscreens should never be allowed on anyone’s skin. People are trying to avoid cancer by using chemicals that have been shown to cause cancer. It’s almost the definition of insanity, and the FDA isn’t going to do anything about it, apparently.
There are more bad chemicals besides the ones I listed – there are all kinds of parabens and acetates in many of them – chemicals that really shouldn’t be rubbed into your skin.
Think of the patches that go on skin that deliver drugs to your body… nicotine patches, birth control patches — there are a lot of them now. Products placed on the outside of your skin can absorb into your bloodstream and make their way to the various organs of your body. We need to be careful about what we put on our skin.
The problem with many of the products that are safe to use, with no toxic chemicals, is that they are often greasy, and many of them don’t dry clear. Also, some of them aren’t as water resistant, and some of them don’t smell all that great (because they aren’t using cheap but toxic fragrance formulations). You can usually get a good idea of what works and what doesn’t work, what people would buy again or not buy again, by looking through the most popular items at Amazon and reading the reviews. Use that list to go to EWG’s Skin Deep site and see what they say about the item. Remember though, that EWG can’t keep up with ingredients on everything, so go to the manufacturer’s website and look up the ingredients to be sure the lists match up. Some companies put good stuff in, get good marks, and then switch ingredients out for cheaper ingredients, riding on the good marks for a while. Others see that they have bad marks for using a particular chemical and they switch it out with something less toxic. So, doublecheck.
The FDA did finally speak up last year, but not in the way most people wanted them to. You can read the press release here, but basically they just created a definition and some requirements for “broad spectrum” so you’ll know it blocks both UVA and UVB, and created some guidelines for what SPF claims a company can make. They needed to do a whole lot more than they did, but since they didn’t, it’s up to us to make sure our families are using safe and effective products. We should begin seeing the new labels this summer, so it should be easier to determine whether something is broad spectrum without knowing off the top of your head which chemicals protect against what, but you’ll still have to check the chemicals out for toxicity and side effects, though.
Our family uses sunscreen if we are going to be in direct sunlight for more than about 30 or 40 uninterrupted minutes. We do not use it every time we walk out the door, but I think we do okay with that – neither girl has ever had a sunburn. A little sunlight is healthy – even necessary. Our bodies utilize the energy of the sun, but can’t do that without some of those rays soaking into our skin. Our bodies have defense systems designed for dealing with sunlight in small doses – it’s only when we extend it out and spend a whole lot of time in the sun all at once that our natural defenses can’t keep up. Eating lots of carrots, berries, dark green leafy vegetables, and foods high in vitamin C can help your body take in the good parts of the sun and protect against the bad parts. It goes back to good nutrition, again.
My plan of action when dealing with the sun is to eat the right foods, use sunscreen for extended periods of time in the sun, and make sure we are using a sunscreen with safe ingredients.
Previous posts in this series:
- Pollution in China (prequel to the series, sort of)
- High Fructose Corn Syrup – why it is bad
- Avoiding Toxins – Non Stick Pans
- Avoiding Toxins – Petroleum Products in lotions and make-up
- Avoiding Toxins – Flame Resistant Pajamas
- Avoiding Toxins – Fingernail Polish
- Avoiding Toxins – Sunscreen
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February 7th, 2012 at 11:01 am
We’ve used California Baby for a long time now. But i’ve recently read that they have changed their formula. It’s causing a lot of rashes for kids where it wasn’t a problem before. I don’t think the product now is as safe as it used to be. Just my 2 cents.
February 7th, 2012 at 11:11 am
We have a lot of trouble with different sunscreens. We switched to California Baby last summer and two had allergic type reactions. We use Badger, but, to be honest, I got one of the worst burns of my life a few summers ago after a few hours on the beach wearing badger though it seems to work better on the girls who have more pigment in their skin, but it doesn’t keep them from tanning. We’ve tried about everything else under the sun (no pun intended) and at least one person in the family has an issue with it. We have a summer place near the beach so we are there all the time…every day. We wear a lot of Coolibar sunscreen clothing and use a cabana and 2 umbrellas to reduce the sunscreen required. We need our sunscreen to be nut and avacado oil free and I try to find stuff with the fewest ingredients. Even if we go a summer and one sunscreen seems fine, eventually the kids start to get rashes, red swollen ears, hives, etc.
Can’t wait to hear what people suggest.
February 7th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
California Baby does not list ingredients on their own website, but their FAQ says they keep their list of ingredients up to date on the EWG site. Ingredients below are from EWG.
California Baby No Fragrance Sunblock Stick, SPF 30+
Unless you’ve got a sensitivity or allergy to coconut or one of the other things here, this is all pretty good stuff. Let’s look at the lotion, as opposed to the stick.
California Baby No Fragrance Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 30+
The stick says it is a non-nano titanium dioxide, where the lotion does not specify that. The stick is a much higher concentration of titanium dioxide, too, which is (theoretically) going to give better protection. Overall, I would think the stick would be less irritating, unless there is something in it you are specifically allergic or sensitive to.
Nothing really bad in either one — but I wonder at using a whole lot of anything on a daily basis. If you develop irritation to a sunscreen over time, maybe find two or three that work for you, and rotate them. My aunt got on this extremely low carb kick and was eating four or five eggs a day. Seven weeks of that and she had a huge allergic reaction that put her in the hospital – it’s been more than five years and she still can’t eat anything with eggs in it or she has a dangerous reaction. Our bodies don’t deal well with the same thing day after day, sometimes even if it’s an all natural healthy something.
February 7th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Vanicream is another good one. Expensive, but good. We don’t use sunscreen all that often, only when necessary.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:30 pm
This info is extremely important to me as we are adding a child with albinism to our family. In fact, it has been a constant concern in the back of my mind as we’ve waded through the paperwork process. In fact we bought like 20 bottles of brand name baby sunscreen…SPF 50 as it was on clearance at the end of the year with still 2 years left of use…knowing she will need it all the time, but the chemicals that will be absorbed into her blood? Ugh?! Thanks again. I have my work cut out for me!
February 7th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
We use Blue Lizard. We have 3 little ones from China with albinism – sunscreen is a necessity. I did alot of research on this a while ago – anyone have an opinion on this brand.
Thanks for any input.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
I think California Baby’s formulation has changed. I use it for myself, and got a bad sunburn after the last bottle, along with a horrible skin reaction. I know their FAQ says they update their information, but I can’t help but think that this is a different product. It even smells a little different.
Now we are using Lavera: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/product/91392/Lavera_Sunblock_Baby_and_Children%2C_SPF_30/ But mostly, we use SPF clothing, avoid the sun during peak periods, dont lie on the beach tanning, reapply sunscreen a lot, and keep our fingers crossed. But I can’t walk from the parking lot to my office door (7 minute walk) without burning, so sunscreen is a requirement!
February 8th, 2012 at 10:07 am
Overuse of sunscreen of any variety (safe or unsafe) can also result in vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is critical to our good health and that of our children. The sunlight-manufactured variety (the kind our bodies make on their own when exposed regularly to sunlight) is far better for us that vitamin D fortified milk. The only place we use sunscreen – ever – is at the beach.