Why is the Media Scaring People Away from Sunscreens?
Articles like this bug me.
“The Claim: A Sunscreen Chemical Can Have Toxic Side Effects”
In this sound-bite, headline reading world, a person will casually see this in their reader or on the Internet and conclude that sunscreens are toxic.
The fact is further supported in the first paragraph where the writer says “Sunscreen is supposed to protect skin. But some people suspect that a chemical in sunscreen, absorbed through the skin, may be even more hazardous than the sun’s rays. ”
The author then goes on to site a couple of small studies that some people find supports the headline. But if you read a little further down the article, you see a completely different story.
According to the independent researchers at Memorial Sloan-Ketterin Cancer Center the research raising toxic concerns of Oxybenzone are unrealistic and that oxybenzone is safe for use at normal levels. They also looked at the data for the compound being tested on humans and found there were no safety concerns.
I appreciate the fact that they end with the bottom line that “exposure to oxybenzone, through normal sunscreen use, is safe…” but what’s with the “sunscreeens are toxic” spin?
Ridiculous.
