It’s a surprise to see know that popular sunscreens don’t meet standard guidelines, especially at a time when people need it the most.
Many popular sunscreens don’t meet standard guidelines
A study that was recently published in the journal Jama Dermatology reveals that many sunscreen brands do not pass sun protection standards, therefore, are not effective in providing protection against the sun.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in an effort to compare sunscreen brands and their capacity to provide sunscreen protection to its users.
The researchers looked sunscreen brands that belong to the top 1 percent of sunscreen products found in Amazon or about 65 different sunscreen brands.
Knowledge gap among consumers
“There is a gap in consumer knowledge on sunscreen,” says Shuai Xu, co-author and a resident in dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
One of the key considerations the researchers were looking at is to see if the labels conformed to the standards set by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) based on three qualities;
Ø The products need to be water-resistant, which means that it needs to adhere to the skin’s surface for up to 80 minutes before you need to re-apply additional sunscreen lotion.
Ø Sun protection factor (SPF) of no less than 30. Which means the skin has 30 times longer sun protection before you start to feel your skin burn.
Ø Broad-spectrum, which means that it should have the capacity to block ultraviolet A and B rays.
Upon checking the labels alone, Xu points out that 26 of the 65 brands failed to meet some or all of the AAD standards. And no less than 72 percent failed because they were not water-resistant, meaning it has the tendency to get washed off from the skin upon contact with water.
“Sunscreen as a product class is something greater than what you wear at the beach,” says Xu.
The study also included a wide variety of sunscreen products that were mostly made up of lotion or makeup.
To date, a study by Consumers Report claims that 28 out of 60 tested sunscreens did not match the label’s claim. A class action lawsuit has been filed on another popular brand that sports a protection of SPF 50 but when tested it only contained SPF 12.69.
This is an indication that many popular sunscreens don’t meet standard guidelines.
The post Popular Sunscreens Don’t Meet Standard Guidelines appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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