Sunscreen - Saving Lotion or the Devil?
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Is your sunscreen giving you Cancer?
Now that the sunny days are back, it is likely we are going to hear ‘put on
your sunscreen’ from the media again. The truth is that I have always
been a bit dubious about slathering on enough chemicals to block out UV radiation,
and exactly what happens to those chemicals after they break down
on your skin and start to soak in. Ever wonder if there is a correlation
between increased skin cancer rates and sunscreen use?
With this in mind, I went out to do some research on the web and found this
article straight away: 84%
of sunscreen products are harmful to health, says alarming EWG study. Pretty
scary stuff since they tell us to put on sunscreen every day. To make
matters worse it looks like many of the sunscreens on the market are not that
effective at blocking both UVA and UVB radiation. So while you may not
be burning, you may still be getting a good dose of cell damage. This
quote from HealthLink pretty
much sums it up:
"As prevention, however, sunscreens alone appear to be imperfect. In the
first study to test the protective effect of sunscreens on people — not
just the hairless mice used in laboratory studies — researchers at the Queensland
Institute for Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, reported in 1999 that
sunscreen use reduces the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma by 40%.
But using sunscreen did not reduce the risk of developing melanoma or basal
cell carcinoma. The Australian study followed 1,383 adults for five years. "
So you have managed to lower your risk of cancer of your superficial skin
cancers which are very treatable and according to InteliHealth:
"In most cases,
the outlook is excellent. Overall, 95% to 98% of squamous cell carcinomas can
be cured if they are treated early and have not spread.
But at the same time you aren’t burning you stay out in the sun longer, exposing
yourself to more UV overall and setting yourself up for other types of skin
cancer. Seems
to be that letting your skin tell you when it has had enough might be a better
way of preventing skin cancer than relying on the chemicals.
When you go out in the sun next time, give some thought to your poor skin. It
is after all your biggest organ (no matter what else you might be thinking
of) and it does suck up whatever we put on it. If you are going to wear
sunscreen take a look at the Sunscreen
Summary — What Works and What’s Safe and decide for yourself what
you should be using.
Personally I will stick with just not sitting in
the sun baking all day long. Besides, if you sit in the sun, it gets my
beer warm before you can drink it all.
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