I saw the sun today!

Okay, it was a fleeting moment, but thoughts of sunscreen, bug spray, and hats came swirling through my brain. The sunscreens that are readily available on the market are so unhealthy. They contain a vast array of chemicals, including parabens. The FDA has failed to regulate sunscreens, although this is reportedly supposed to change this summer. The chemical of most concern is benzophenone-3 (BP-3). Some studies have reported that it is an estrogenic mimic and therefore affects the hormones in your body. It causes the release of free radicals when it comes in contact with the sun. Free radicals are one of the causes of cancer. I copied the below from: http://www.skinbiology.com/toxicsunscreens.html. These are some of the critical things I want to get across:

Chemical sunscreens have three primary defects: 

1	They are powerful free radical generators.	Their free radical generation increases cellular damage and changes that lead to cancer. Psoralen - such a compound that is used to treat psoriasis increases skin cancer rates 83-fold.
2	They often have strong estrogenic activity.	Estrogenic - "Gender Bending" - chemicals interfere with normal sexual development - Engendering a host of secondary medical problems - see more below.
3	They are synthetic chemicals that are alien to the human body and accumulate in body fat stores.	The human body is well adapted to de-toxify biologicals that it has been exposed to over tens of millions of years. But it has often has difficulty removing new and non-biological compounds such DDT, Dioxin, PCBs, and chemical sunscreens.

Chemical Sunscreens Include:

Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)

PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB,  glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid, padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA)

Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate)

Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate)

Digalloyl trioleate

Menthyl anthranilate

Avobenzone [butyl-methyoxydibenzoylmethane; Parsol 1789] - This is the only chemical sunscreen currently allowed by the European Community. However, its safety is still questionable since it easily penetrates the skin and is a strong free radical generator. 

Europe is always leaps ahead of the US. So if something is banned there (as most of the above chemicals are), I won't touch it with a ten foot pole. For example, the banned BPA years before the US even began to debate it. 

An interesting statistic from the above site is this: the highest rate of melanoma occurs in the countries of heaviest sunscreen use...

For you parents out there: I love California Baby sunscreens. For us and babies, I love the Badger brand which can be purchased online.

Enjoy the sun this spring/summer, but also don't forget the best way to get vitamin D is 15 minutes of direct sunlight without the sunscreen :)

a few resources:
http://greenlivingideas.com/2008/06/03/chemical-free-sunscreens/
this is a really interesting article on sunscreen

http://www.ewg.org/2010sunscreen/
my go-to website! It let's you check the sunscreen you have to make sure it is safe to use.

http://www.ewg.org/newsrelease/whichsunscreenssafest
the science on the sunscreens