Our whole life we've been told to wear our sunscreen and protect ourselves from skin cancer, but recently with a new call to action to recall some of our most popular sunscreen brands such as Neutrogena and Banana Boat, we are brought to question whether sunscreen completely protects us from skin cancer or if it may be causing even worse side effects. Should we stop using sunscreen all together with these risks?
In the petition to recall, Valisure LLC calls into question the levels of benzene in numerous sunscreen brands. Now, what is benzene? Benzene is a colorless chemical that can come in the form of liquid or gas. It is highly flammable and evaporates into the air rather quickly. The intake of benzene is EXTREMELY dangerous as the chemical causes cell not to work properly, causes bone marrow to not produce enough red blood cells, damages the immune system, and slowly poisons any unsuspecting bystander. This is why benzene in our sunscreen is potentially hazardous. Not only do we spray sunscreen into the air on a daily basis which could burn your house down if something as simple as a candle was nearby, but we also rub sunscreen on our faces near to our mouths. (It is also deadly to the fishies when washed off in bodies of water for all of our environmental friends out there.)
Thankfully, according to the petition, not all sunscreens have high levels of benzene or even traces of the chemical. While you may just go out and replace your chemical sunscreen with mineral sunscreen to reduce the need of looking at the ingredients on the back of the can, the ingredients that you need to look out for that are shown to contain benzene are Avobenzone, Homosalate, Octisalate, and Octocrylene. Many sprays and bottles containing more than 100+ SPF were also frequently shown to be potentially dangerous.
Now, you might want to take a breather since that was a lot of information and chemical names to take in that you may not have heard of before. But, this all bring into question, "how did these products get onto our shelves in the first place (especially if they are so dangerous)?" Well, while the FDA does regulate cosmetic products, benzene is not listed as a potentially dangerous substance. That is why this petition is so important; not only does it urge the FDA to recall many of the sunscreen brands that have the previously listed ingredients in them, but it also calls for the reevaluation of the FDA guidelines on products like sunscreen.
So, to answer the question "does sunscreen cause cancer?", no, it does not and yes, you should still be wearing sunscreen every day (we'd recommend Nöz Sunscreen). Like any product, just make sure to look at those ingredients and you'll be on your way to becoming an SPF champion (while not burning your house down ;-)).
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