THE BURNING QUESTION, IS SUNSCREEN A SCAM?

 

 

    

Having spent a great Sunday afternoon in Springbank Park playing Bocce ball with a great group of friends I became very aware of just how powerful and penetrating the media can be in regards to sunscreen usage.  As I looked around every child was slathered from head to toe in sunscreen, wives were following their husbands around with the Coppertone bottle in their hands, and many of my friends I’m sure did not leave home without applying it first.  

So I ask the question,  “If sunscreen sales are into the billions each and every year, why are the rates of skin cancer rising at such an alarming rate?”   

 

•    54,000 cases of skin cancer annually in the United States 

•    1 in 5 North Americans will develop skin cancer

•    Skin cancer in women under the age of 40 has tripled in the last 30 years

 

The alarming rates of skin cancer has provoked many people to avoid the sun as much as possible and cover themselves and their children with sunscreen before spending any time outdoors.  But for millions of years, humans have spent many hours out in the sun each day without the protection of sunscreen.  As such, it seems completely backwards to think that spending time in the sun would be considered dangerous. Especially since our hunter-gatherer ancestors (who where much healthier then us) spent a considerable amount of time in the sun.

Could it be possible that sunscreen contributes to these large incidences of skin cancer seen throughout North America? 

Here is what I do know.

 Active ingredients found in most popular brands of sunscreen (Coppertone, Neutrogena, Banana Boat).

 

•    Para Amino benzoic acid     

•    Avobenzone

•    Cinoxate

•    Dioxybenzone

•    Homosalate

•    Octyl salicylate

•    Oxybenzone 

•    Padimate O

•    Menthyl anthranilate

•    Octocrylene

•    Octo methoxycinnamate

•    Phenulbenzimidazole

•    Sulisobenzone

•    Titanium dioxie

•    Trolamine salicylate

•    Zinc oxide

 

When we expose our skin to the sun the pores open up from the heat, this allows these toxic (and cancer causing) substances to enter directly into our body.  Definitely not something I’m willing to do to my children. 

It appears that for the past 30 years so-called sunscreens have been good at blocking UVB rays (the ones that burn) but not UVA (the ones primarily responsible for DNA damage and skin cancer).

In essence what sunscreen has done is give us a false sense of security.  The fact that it blocks UVB rays not allowing us to burn, led us to believe that we could stay out in the sun all day.  Little did we know that the burning of the skin might have been a great first warning sign to get out of the sun in the first place.  Imagine that, our body has a natural way of saying “enough”!!

So how did this whole business of never letting our children out in the sun without sunscreen (if you don’t your deemed a bad parent), or never laying in the sun without it yourself all start?

In case you did not already know, the largest pharmaceutical companies also own 3 of the largest manufacturers of sunscreen.  And frankly, last time I checked these companies did not really have my health in their best interest.  They are a business whose sole responsibility is to make money, not to make me healthy or protect me from cancer.  

 

“BUT THE OZONE LAYER IS GETTING WEAKER, THEREFORE THE SUN IS SO MUCH STRONGER THAN IT WAS”

I rank this statement in the same category as global warming.  Another fear tactic placed on us by environmentalists and the government.  Please don’t take me the wrong way; I am a huge advocate of taking care of the earth, recycling, and conserving energy and resources.  The ozone layer is here to stay; it has the ability the regenerate itself.  The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica that was discovered in the 1980’s that prompted government regulation of CFC’s and Freon, actually exists every year from September to December.  So instead of it being a big concern, it is actually a naturally occurring event each and every year.  

“BUT I USE NATURAL SUNSCREEN”

Great alternative if you have to be out in the sun all day.  Remember though that even natural sunscreen only blocks UVB rays (the ones that burn), and allow UVA rays (the ones that cause DNA damage and skin cancer).  

 

Be smart, not scared of the sun.  Cover up using hats, sunglasses, t-shirts, umbrellas.  Limit your exposure.  Utilize the shade and the trees that surround you.  

 

peace and love

dr. rachelle vanderheyden 

 

 

Sources and Citations:

1)    http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2003/08/02/sunscreen-cancer.aspx

2)    http://www.marksdailyapple.com/spf-100-sunblock/

3)    http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ozone/index.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Kath]

Too bad daycares require you to provide a sunscreen to lather your kid in, otherwise they will put their own - no ifs ands or buts. I send a natural one and then at home she doesn't wear any.
Kath

[Lindsay]

Has anyone else ever applied sunscreen and then still got burnt? Maybe it is just me and my skin is different or something but I find that the more sunscreen I apply I burn more. I have since gone without and not had near as many burns as in the past.