97 Percent of Americans Contaminated by Sunscreens

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97 Percent of Americans Contaminated by Sunscreens

_http://www.naturalnews.com/022990.html_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/022990.html)

 

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a new study showing that

nearly all Americans are contaminated with oxybenzone, a widely-used sunscreen

ingredient. This chemical so far has been linked to allergies, hormone

disruption, and cell damage, as well as low birth weight in baby girls whose

mothers

are exposed during pregnancy. Oxybenzone is also a penetration enhancer, a

chemical that helps other chemicals penetrate the skin. So where has the FDA

been on this?

 

Apparently in the back pocket of the _sunscreen_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/sunscreen.html) industry. The Food and Drug

Administration, again, has

failed in its duty to protect the public from toxic chemicals like oxybenzone.

Caving to the industry lobbyists, the agency has delayed final sunscreen safety

standards for nearly 30 years. FDA issued a new draft of the standards last

October under pressure from _Environmental Working Group_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/Environmental_Working_Group.html) (EWG), but

continues to delay

finalizing them because of pressure from the industry.

 

In their online cosmetic safety database, EWG identifies nearly 600

sunscreens sold in the U.S. that contain oxybenzone, including leading brand

names

like Hawaiian Tropic, Coppertone, and Banana Boat, and many facial moisturizers

as well. On top of that, they also show many of these so-called sunscreens

offer inadequate protection from the sun. In fact, they found that sunlight

also causes oxybenzone to form free radical chemicals that may be linked to

cell damage, which is the exact opposite reason many women mistakenly use the

sunscreen - to protect them from damaging free radicals which lead to premature

_aging_ (http://www.naturalnews.com/aging.html) !

 

And interestingly, as sunscreen sales have risen, so has the rate of skin

cancers. Go figure. We've been pressured to believe that the sun is our enemy

and we need to slather on loads of sunscreen to protect ourselves, when in

actuality we need sunlight for our bodies to manufacture vitamin D. For those

of

us who are either fair skinned or just plain vain and worry about age spots

and wrinkles, limiting our unprotected sun exposure to 20 minutes a day is

adequate for our daily dose of vitamin D. For more fun in the sun, overexposure

can be avoided by using a natural or organic sunscreen with a reflective

barrier like zinc, instead of chemical sunscreens. Even a small amount of shea

butter rubbed into the skin daily offers a bit of natural UV protection.

Whatever you do, don't wait for _the FDA_

(http://www.naturalnews.com/the_FDA.html) to help you in your choice. Based on

their history in this category, it

could be another 30 years before safety standards are improved.

 

References:

1. Environmental Health Perspectives: Concentrations of the Sunscreen Agent,

Benzophenone-3, in Residents of the United States: National Health and

Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2004

_http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2008/1126..._

(http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2008/11269/abstract.html)

 

2. Environmental Working Group: Comments from EWG on the U.S. FDA's Proposed

Amendment of Final Monograph for Sunscreens

_http://www.ewg.org/node/25705_ (http://www.ewg.org/node/25705)

 

3. Environmental Working Group: Americans Carry 'Body Burden' of Toxic

Sunscreen Chemical

_http://www.ewg.org/node/26212_ (http://www.ewg.org/node/26212)

 

About the author

Ellen Holder is co-founder of Caren, an online store for natural, organic

and synthetic chemical free skin care products. _http://www.carenonline.com_

(http://www.carenonline.com/)

 

 

 

 

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