FDA Warning Says the Chemicals in Sunscreen Can Be Absorbed In Your Bloodstream—Here's What That Means
We know
you’ve been told all your life to slather on the sunscreen before a day spent
outside. We’re not disputing that advice, but a new report in
the Journal of the American Medical Association has given us some food
for thought: There’s a chance that sunscreen could potentially be dangerous.
Here’s
how: Sunscreen ingredients can travel through the skin and build up in the
bloodstream, the new report suggests. This finding has raised concerns about
how sunscreen might affect reproductive and developmental health and whether it
can cause cancer, according to an editorial accompanying the new report.
For the
new study, scientists from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) studied
the effects of sunscreen on 24 healthy people. They tested four different
sunscreens—two sprays, one lotion, and one cream—each applied four times a day,
to 75% of the body surface, for four days.
Blood
samples were then taken from the participants to determine how much of four
specific sunscreen ingredients—avobenzone, oxybenzone, ecamsule, and
octocrylene—ended up in their bloodstreams. And it turns out, it was a
significant amount.
A bit of
background: The FDA recommends that any active ingredients in sunscreen with
“systemic absorption greater than 0.5 ng/mL” should undergo toxicology studies,
including research on developmental, reproductive, and cancer-related health
issues. And sure enough, all four of those ingredients were found at levels
greater than that FDA benchmark—some at levels six or even eight times higher.
That
certainly sounds concerning. But before we freak out about how much sunscreen
we’ve been putting on for the last 10 years, let’s consider a few key aspects
of this new research. First, the number of participants evaluated—24—is quite
low, and the results only showed blood levels of these chemicals over the
course of one week.
Second,
the report isn’t claiming that these chemicals are actually unsafe, or that
sunscreen should be pulled from supermarket shelves. In fact, it doesn’t even
recommend throwing your sunscreen out. “These results do not indicate that
individuals should refrain from the use of sunscreen,” it says.
What the
report does say is that we need to know more. “The systemic absorption of
sunscreen ingredients supports the need for further studies to determine the
clinical significance of these findings,” the authors wrote. The accompanying
editorial points out that further testing could be especially important for
babies, “whose skin may absorb substances at differential rates.”
The
editorial also calls for sunscreen manufacturers to commit to more safety
tests, claiming that industry leaders have been hesitant to do so in the past.
“Despite multiple efforts by the FDA to persuade sunscreen manufacturers to
conduct key safety studies, the manufacturers have failed to produce such data,
forcing the FDA to conduct its own studies,” the editorial states.
Those FDA
studies haven’t been super promising, either: In 2014, an advisory panel
concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to state unequivocally that certain
sunscreen ingredients are safe.
Dermatologists,
however, still say that lathering up before spending time outdoors is a must—despite
these new concerns. “Sunscreen is one of the major components of sun
protection,” Noelani González, MD, an instructor of dermatology at the Mount
Sinai Icahn School of Medicine in New York City, tells Health. According
to the Skin Cancer Foundation, daily use of a sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher
reduces the risk of developing melanoma—the
deadliest form of skin cancer—by 50%.
Plus,
says Dr. González, no clinical studies have actually linked sunscreen use to
any of the potential dangers mentioned in this new study. “At this point we
don’t necessarily know that [the ingredients analyzed in the new report] are
worrisome,” she says. “It’s a very good starting point for us as physicians to
investigate, but it’s early on.”
So what
does this mean for you when you’re packing your beach bag? You should
definitely still throw in the sunscreen. If you’re concerned about ingredients
like oxybenzone, you might want to consider products with physical or mineral blockers (rather than
chemical blockers) like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, which aren’t absorbed
by the skin and are considered safe by the FDA.
But until
we know more, says Dr. González, any sunscreen is still better than none at
all. The authors of the editorial agree, saying that avoidance of sunscreen as
a result of this study “could have significant health implications.” They also
point out that wearing sunscreen should be just one part of a larger
sun-protection plan—one that also includes wearing protective clothing, hats,
and sunglasses when spending time outside, and seeking shade when the sun is
strongest.
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