Sunscreens May Cause Cancer
Buyer
beware: Most sunscreen products actually promote cancer rather than prevent it so you may want to think twice before you
marinate in all those chemicals that can be found in any commercially
made sunscreen product. In addition to absorbing chemicals through
your skin, sunscreens block the body's absorption of ultraviolet
radiation, which produces vitamin D in the skin. Vitamin D, as
recent studies have shown, prevents up to 77 of ALL cancers.
If
sunscreen is so dangerous, then why do doctors highly recommend
its daily use? Perhaps because doctors
are as easily influence by commercial interests as the rest
of the general population and can be readily convinced to recommend
practically any product, no matter how toxic, unhealthy or deadly
to consumers. It wasn't that long ago when doctors where highly
recommending HRT, Vioxx, and countless other pharmaceuticals that
later proved to cause cancer and/or death. Another amusing note
that speaks volumes as to what is "doctor recommended"
that we'll fall for; Lane library has an exhibit surrounding the
use of doctors espousing the safety of smoking in advertising.
The ads cover the period from the 1920’s through 1950’s.
In some cases smoking was even suggested as a cure for
a sore throat! The exhibit is called Not
a cough in a carload: Images from the tobacco industry's campaign
to hide the hazards of smoking, and was put together by Robert
Jackler, Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck
Surgery, and Professor of Neurosurgery and Surgery, Laurie Jackler,
Artist, and Robert Proctor, Professor of History. The Journal
of the American Medical Association ran numerous ads promoting
Camels as "recommended by more doctors than any other cigarette!"
Doctors talked up the "benefits" of smoking cigarettes.
Then
there's the American Cancer Society telling us to use sunscreen.
Daily. Buy it by the gallon and use it every day. Sunscreen sales
continue to go up every year... skin cancers are also on the rise.
Cancer is a big business and the continued commercial success
of the cancer industry depends on more people getting cancer.
Whether
some or all of the ingredients found in sunscrees are toxic is
controversial and there are studies on either side of the issue.
However a study in the April 2004 Journal
of Chromatography found that there is significant
penetration of all sunscreen agents they studied into the skin,
and oxybenzone and metabolites across the skin. When you use sunscreen
your body is absorbing synthetic chemicals, and with experts’
recommendations to apply generous amounts of the product every
few hours, you will likely be absorbing a fair amount of these
chemecials. Regardless of whether or not sunscreen causes cancer,
it is hard to believe that all of these chemicals will not have
any effect on your system.
Even
though studies on the potential toxicity of sunscreens may not
be definitive, if you're going to use a sunscreen then why not
look for a natural alternative to commercial sunscreens that contain
no petrochemicals, such as Caribbean Blue Natural Basics "Sun Shield." Also,
aloe vera gel on your skin works as a natural sunscreen, and helps
heal a sunburn.
The
best natural sunscreen, however, is an internal sunscreen built
with nutrition. Eat chlorella, spirulina, goji berries, raspberries,
blackberries, blueberries, astaxanthin, carrots and nutrient-rich
superfoods to boost your skin's natural UV protection (takes about
30 days of nutrition to boost skin levels).
Sunscreen
Ingredients to Avoid
Overall,
there are two basic types of skin cream or lotion protection: sunscreens,
which absorb and deflect (or reflect) the sun's rays via a chemical
reaction, and "blocks"—zinc oxide and titanium dioxide—which
create a physical barrier against rays. Most commercial products
offer a combination of the two, but when possible avoid the following
ingredients:
• PABA: Though rarely used now in sunscreens, beware
of products that contain the ingredient. Forty percent of the population
is sensitive to it, experiencing red, itchy skin.
• Benzophenone (benzophenone-3), homosalate,
and octy-methoxycinnamate (octinoxate): These chemicals are
of more concern because they have shown estrogenic activity in lab
tests. Dr. Margret Schlumpf of the University of Zurich's Institute
of Pharmacology and Toxicology says they have been shown to disrupt
hormones, affecting the development of the brain (particularly the
hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal system) and reproductive organs in
laboratory rats.
Because
people are exposed simply by eating fish (where benzophenone accumulates
in the fat), using sunscreen containing these chemicals unduly
increases the exposure. Based on her studies, Dr. Schlumpf advises
people avoid products containing benzophenone and the related
chemicals above.
• Parabens (butyl-, ethyl-, methyl-, and propyl-):
Parabens may also mimic estrogen, but because they are common
in sunscreens, avoiding them may prove difficult.
• Padimate-O and Parsol 1789 (2-ethylhexyl-4-dimethylaminobenzoic
acid and avobenzone): These two chemicals have the potential to
damage DNA when illuminated with sunlight. On the skin's surface,
these chemicals do protect from UV damage; however, once absorbed
into the skin, these same chemicals can prove destructive. Dr.
Knowland's research indicates that Padimate-O and Parsol 1789
"are excited by the UV energy which they absorb and become
reactive, acquiring the potential to attack cellular components,
including DNA." Knowland cautions that "DNA damage inflicted
by an excited sunscreen is much less capable of being repaired
by naturally occurring repair mechanisms than the DNA damage inflicted
by UV alone."
NET
RESOURCES:
Which
Sunscreens are Safest?
June
19, 2007
First-ever
online database rates sunscreen safety and effectiveness
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released the first-ever,
in-depth analysis of the safety and effectiveness of more than
700 name-brand sunscreens. The new database lists products that
offer the best combination of safety and effectiveness: they are
formulated with the safest chemicals, are most effective at protecting
against sunburn, and help prevent long-term damage caused by the
sun’s UVA rays, which are linked to skin aging, wrinkling
and, potentially, cancer.
The
analysis found that 84 percent of 785 sunscreen products with
an SPF rating of 15 or higher offer inadequate protection from
the sun’s harmful rays, or contain ingredients with safety
concerns. Ironically, some popular sunscreen chemicals break down
when exposed to sunlight and must be formulated with stabilizing
chemicals. Others penetrate the skin and present significant
health concerns.
This
ground-breaking research is based on nearly 400 peer-reviewed
studies of the 17 sunscreen chemicals approved for use in the
U.S., an analysis of sunscreen ingredient toxicity linked to 60
industry and government databases on chemical hazards, coupled
with customized, product-by-product assessments of protection
from both UVA and UVB radiation
