Sunscreen’s have been being used by us around for nearly 100 years. The goal of using sunscreen was to block ultraviolet (UV) light. UV lights are the harmful rays of the sun. Sunscreens started out with pasty zinc oxide. This is such an element that no one would use. So scientists created sunscreens with clear chemicals which tend to absorb UV light. In 1944, Coppertone was the first brand which became the first mass marketed sunscreen. Fast forward to now, when in today’s world about a billion dollars worth of sunscreen are sold each year in the world a question arouses that is it entirely perfect for our body? Sunscreen is known as a unique body care product: consumers are always directed to apply a thick coat of sunscreen over large areas of the body. They are also told to reapply it frequently. Thus, ingredients which are present in sunscreen should not be irritating. They should not also cause skin allergies. They should also be able to withstand powerful UV radiation without losing their effectiveness of work. Sunscreens are supposed to work successfully without forming potentially harmful breakdown of the products. Now a day, we can often find those sunscreens are containing harmful elements. Such elements are inappropriate for the human skin.
People are supposed to potentially inhale ingredients in sunscreen sprays. They are also ingesting some of the ingredients they generally apply to their lips. So the ingredients presented in sunscreens must not be harmful to lungs or internal organs. Further, sunscreens commonly include ingredients which act as “penetration enhancers”. These enhancers help the product to adhere the skin. As a consequence, many sunscreen chemicals are absorbed into the body. Which in further movements can be easily measured in blood, breast milk and urine samples which are not acceptable. This article tries to let you know that hy now most of the sunscreens contain harmful chemicals. It’s a very serious issue and we should be very careful about the fact.
You must know that UV light causes skin cancer. This ray also prematurely ages the skin. As a consequence, it’s very important to protect our skin with sunscreen. We don’t want to block the mighty sunshine completely. You must know that about 20 minutes time spending in sunshine each day is good for us and our skin. It boosts our vitamin D intake and improves our mood. Beyond 20 minutes, however, our immune system starts to suffer due to sunrays. We either need to spend the rest of the day inside or we have protected our skin with the help of sunscreen. So it is clear that the use of sunscreen is not a fancy desire rather it’s a must.
The main point is the chemical presence in sunscreens is harmful. There are 17 individual sunscreen ingredients which are approved by dermatologists and researches. Among all of them, 15 of these chemicals are clear chemicals. They are clear because they absorb UV light. Two of the chemicals are also made of minerals which reflect UV light. Among these 15 chemicals, nine are known as endocrine disruptors. To get effective result, chemical sunscreens need to be rubbed into human skin 20 minutes before the exposure of sun. They literally do a pretty good job at blocking the UV light. The irony is they actually get used up as soon as the sun shines on them. In reality, some sunscreens lose as much as 90% of their effectiveness within n just an hour. As a consequence, they need to be reapplied again. The twist comes when we know that this procedure is not the case with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. This two mineral of sunscreens work very differently .They tend to sit on the surface of the skin. These elements physically block UV light.
Chemical sunscreens are not allowed to sit on the surface of the human skin. These elements are gradually soaked into our skin. They very quickly find their way into the bloodstream. After this procedure, these elements start to scatter all over the body without being detoxified by the liver. These elements can easily be detected in blood, urine, and breast milk for up to two days after a single time application. Can you imagine the negative effect of it! That would be just fine if they were safe – but the irony is they’re not uniformly safe.
As it is mentioned in the initial part ,that nine of the 15 chemical of sunscreens are considered endocrine disruptors. Those are such chemicals that interfere with the normal function of hormones. The hormones which are most commonly disturbed are estrogen, progesterone, testosterone as well as thyroid. Endocrine is just like some ingredients in chemical sunscreens. It can cause abnormal development of fetuses which is very alarming. Abnormal growth of children can also be a reason of this. These chemicals are responsible for causing early puberty as well as premature breast development in girls. These are also equally responsible for small and undescended testicles in boys. They cause low sperm counts which gradually lead towards infertility. Endocrine imbalance which tends to act like estrogen can contribute to the development of breast and ovarian cancers in women body. Other endocrine disruptors also equally increase the chance of prostate cancer in men.
All of these sound pretty unsettling. Don’t you think so? But hole your breathe because there’s more. As written earlier in this article, chemical sunscreens manage to function by absorbing UV light. In this process, some may get used up to it and mutate. Some generate DNA-damaging chemicals and these chemicals are called “free radicals.” These may lead to cancers and the chemicals present in sunscreen are a great factor for this fact.
Researchers are pretty negative about chemical sunscreens. While many people are not ready to accept the fact there I must have to tell you that “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Poisoning in such way takes place over decades is difficult to study. Chemicals like arsenic as well as botulism make us sick very quickly. So it was very easy to figure out for the researchers that they are toxins. Lead is such a toxin that takes longer to cause illness. so many years ago the government listened the use of led to the scientists . The government also restricted its use. The surprising fact is, chemical sunscreens are even harder to study as their effects are subtle. It takes a very long time to appear.
As you read this, you might be shocked by knowing the facts. According to R. Thomas Zoeller, MS, PhD, who is a Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts. He’s also an author of the Endocrine Society’s scientific statement. This deals with mainly endocrine disrupting chemicals as well as their official representative. He said that an important point about sunscreens is it is applied to skin in a formulation which serves as a drug delivery system .As a result some sunscreens are known to interfere with hormone action. The way in which these chemicals can interact with hormone systems is very dangerous. These chemicals could plausibly increase the risk of various cancers. These chemicals can also use other endocrine disorders.
If there were no good alternatives then helplessly we’d be in a pickle. In this circumstance, we’d have to make some hard decisions. We have to decide if we would use sunscreen or not use sunscreen. But the fortunate fact is, we have great alternatives.
Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are very useful. These are such kind of rocks that are ground down to form a fine consistency. They do a great job at blocking the harmful sunrays. They are capable to block both harmful rays such as UVA and UVB light. Zinc is less whitening on the surface of the skin. Zinc oxide is capable enough to block nearly all dangerous types of UV light. Inexpensive versions of these sunscreens are kind of gooey. you might put them on your kid’s skin as they are safe but the fact is most people don’t like them. But the lucky fact is newer zinc oxide sunscreens contain some particles. These particles are so small that they are likely transparent. These sunscreens are known as micronized. These types of sunscreens do an awesome job at protecting against UV radiation. Even newer kinds of sunscreens are using rocks that are ground into smaller bits which are called nanoparticles. Nanoparticles have their own issues. The fact is, some people don’t consider nanoparticles to be uniformly safe.
The Bottom line is to be safe you must have to use a micronized zinc oxide which contains SPF 15 broad-spectrum. Use SPF15 sunscreen every day of the year. Also you have to use SPF 30 when you’re on the beach as well as working in the garden.
You have to know that active ingredients in sunscreens come in two forms. One form is mineral and the other one is chemical filters. Each uses a different mechanism in order to protect skin as well as maintaining stability in sunlight. This is the most common strategy for the sunscreens brands on the market that they highly contain chemical filters. These products typically tend to include a combination of two to six of the following active ingredients. The ingredients are oxybenzone, avobenzone, octisalate, octocrylene, homosalate and not nut the least octinoxate. Mineral sunscreens use zinc oxide and some cases titanium dioxide. A handful of products combine zinc oxide with chemical filters is the easiest solution for the sunscreen companies.
Laboratory studies indicate that some chemical UV filters tend to mimic hormones. Physicians have reported many sunscreen-related skin allergies. This point raises important questions about unintended human health consequences. Such consequence originates from frequent sunscreen application.
Sunscreens made with zinc oxide and titanium dioxide generally scores well in the report and ratings of dermatologists. It is because:
- They provide us strong sun protection with very few health concerns.
- They don’t break down in the sun exposure
- Zinc oxide offers our skin good protection from UVA rays. Titanium oxide’s protection isn’t as strong as zinc oxide. The fact is, it’s better than most other active ingredients.
Nanoparticles are responsible for lung damage when inhaled:
Inhalation of nanoparticles is dangerous because of many reasons. Researchers strongly discourages the use of loose powder while doing makeup .they also discourage to spray sunscreens which uses titanium dioxide or zinc oxide of any kind of particle size.
Nano particles in lip sunscreens can easily be swallowed. As a result, it might damage the gastrointestinal tract of your body. Although there are no studies in order to suggest that consumers swallow enough zinc oxide or titanium dioxide to pose a concern or consciousness. The risks are less if digestion alters the properties of the particles from reaching towards the intestines. There are hundreds of uncertainties about the degree of risk about this issue. We know the fact that titanium dioxide has been used for decades as a colorant in most commonly eaten foods, including doughnuts as well as M&Ms.
Nano-particles can severely be harmful for human health. Companies like to use these harmful facts because of their profit. Most of the business companies are now showing lack of ethics and they are becoming more centered about their profit.
The lucky fact is, still there are some brands that provide you proper prevention. They may be a costly but nothing is more costly than your health. Hope this article has given you a good idea about the harmful chemicals used in sunscreens. So always be careful about choosing your brand.
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