Study debunks product claims

Sunscreens have harmful chemicals, exaggerated claims

By Ellen Spitaleri

Pamplin Media Group, Jul 8, 2010, Updated Jul 20, 2010

L.E. BASKOW / Pamplin Media Group

Portlanders enjoy sunny weather while swimming on the Willamette River near Sellwood Park. Some sunscreens may not protect our skin as much as we’d hope.

We have high expectations for our sunscreens.

We expect them to sink into our skin and not sit like a white, greasy blob on our noses. Most of all, we expect them to protect us from harmful ultraviolet A and B rays, so we don’t become one of the one million new cases of skin cancer expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year.

But the latest sunscreen product review by Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group casts doubts on that familiar cream we slather on when going outside.

The nonprofit group analyzed 500 beach and sport sunscreens and wound up recommending only 39 — 8 percent of the products tested. It found many had exaggerated claims of Sun Protection Factor of SPF ratings above 50, and the group cited “potentially hazardous ingredients” in most of the products.

Environmental Working Group analyzes goods ranging from sunscreens to cell phones to fruits, to alert the public to hazards from toxics, pesticides and other substances.

It raised concerns about oxybenzone, found in 60 percent of the tested sunscreens, and retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A found in 41 percent, says Rebecca Sutton, a senior scientist for the group based in Oakland, Calif.

Oxybenzone is a hormone disrupter, Sutton says, and studies have linked it to allergies, cell damage and low birthrates in baby girls whose mothers are exposed to it during pregnancy. The chemical is a “penetration enhancer, a chemical that helps other chemicals to penetrate the skin,” Sutton wrote in a 2008 paper. But, she adds, “Chemicals that have been absorbed into the body can’t stay on the surface of the skin to prevent sunburn.”

A 2009 U.S. Food and Drug Administration study showed that when retinyl palmitate is applied to the skin in the presence of sunlight, it may speed the development of skin tumors and lesions.

The FDA is investigating retinyl palmitate as a possible photocarcinogenic, the sunscreen guide notes, “meaning that in the presence of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, the compound and skin undergo complex biochemical changes resulting in cancer.”

The guide notes that the evidence against vitamin A “is far from conclusive,” but it recommends that consumers choose vitamin A-free sunscreens, for now.

Dr. Clytie Rimberg, a Portland dermatologist, is unconvinced by the sunscreen guide’s findings, especially about vitamin A.

“Vitamin A is something that we use topically to reverse sun damage, especially neo-plastic sun damage" that ultimately could lead to skin cancer, Rimberg says.

UVA refers to ultraviolet A or long-wave rays. Ultraviolet B, or UVB, are medium waves.

Sutton disagrees, saying that retinyl palmitate is “not a UVA blocker.”

FDA-approved UVA active ingredients include titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone and mexoryl. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide protect people from UVA and UVB rays by reflecting them for the most part, while avobenzone and mexoryl absorb most UVA rays.

The new sunscreen guide lists zinc oxide and titanium dioxide as ingredients that cause only moderate concern for human exposure and toxicity; avobenzone and mexoryl are listed as ingredients of lowest concern.

Rimberg finds a different problem with sunscreen.

“People use it completely inadequately,” she says. “They think, ‘OK, I’ve got my invincible shield,’ but no sunscreen is absolute. If you really want to be protected, put on a hat, sunglasses and long sleeves.”

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