I had always wondered if wearing lots of sunscreen would have adverse health effects, but these people on a skincare board I go to always encourage each other to wear sunscreen.
Then one day I heard about chemical vs. physical sunscreens and did some Googling, and then I found this:
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f02/web1/vculler.html
Should I just… not go out in the sun? Wear sunglasses, hats, and long sleeves all the time?
There’s this concept called “moderation” that seems to have been lost in our present civilization.
As a general rule you need enough sunlight for your body to produce vitamin D, and no more. That amount depends greatly on your natural skin color - the lighter you are, the less sunlight you require. There are also psychological benefits from full-spectrum sunlight, but one does not need to bask 16 hours a day to achieve results.
How do you know when you’ve had enough sun? You skin will either start to burn or start to tan.
The best protection is to cover up - long sleeves, hats, etc. Think about people who live in/near the Sahara - one of the hottest, driest, sunniest places on Earth and they cover themselves up.
After that, chemical sunscreens are a decent second. Certainly, they can help prevent severe and immediate damage, such as blistering.
However, chemical sunscreens are not a license to bake on the beach. If you can’t handle more than, say, 1 hour of sunlight without burning/tanning, it is NOT healthy to slap on some Coppertone so you can lay on a beach towel for 8 hours. You’re still being exposed to solar radiation.
So, if you’re not going to be out long you’ll probably do fine without, or by wearing long sleeves/pants/skirt and a hat. But if you know you’ll be in direct sun longer than your skin can handle, then by all means use sunscreens - it’s better than nothing. Just don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s preventing all damage.
The thing about that article is that if you follow the link for the cite about chemical sunscreens being unhealthy, it’s a website that sells a bunch stuff like home mole remover kits. I’d take what they have to say with a grain of salt. They are criticizing avobenzone for being a free radical generator and selling a suntan lotion at the same time. It’s senseless. The person who wrote it sells “suntanning lotion” on his site, and from the looks of it, it’s something you put on so you can minimize the damage when you go out and sit in the sun–it has no sunscreen at all. I wouldn’t lose sleep over sunscreen if that’s the only article you could find saying it was dangerous.
Here are some other links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/256031.stm
http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_risk/committees/sccp/docshtml/sccp_out145_en.htm
I’m not a doctor, but pretty much all doctors will tell you that a broad-spectrum sunscreen is better than no sunscreen. People who sell organic products on the internet will tell you that doctors are wrong, that the FDA is wrong. So I guess it depends on who you find more credible.