Potential Health Risks Of Sunscreen
Sunscreen is widely acknowledged to protect against sunburn and two common forms of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC). However, there is some evidence that sunscreen use can contribute to negative health outcomes. The major claims include:
- Some sunscreens only protect against UVB radiation, and not against the more dangerous UVA component of the spectrum. Incomplete protection against the full ultraviolet spectrum, combined with increased time spent in the sun, can lead to an increase in the risks of developing malignant melanoma, a rarer but more deadly form of skin cancer.
- Some sunscreen ingredients (such as oxybenzone, benzophenone, octocrylene, or octyl methoxycinnamate) may be potentially carcinogenic or have other health risks.
- Reduced exposure to ultraviolet light in sunlight can contribute to Vitamin D deficiency.
These issues have precipitated various levels of disagreement within the academic community over the benefits and risks of sunscreen use. Most health authorities and medical associations have concluded that, on the whole, sunscreen use is beneficial.
Read more about Potential Health Risks Of Sunscreen: Studies of Melanoma Rates, Alternative View, Clinical Study, Social Impact, Sunscreen and Vitamin D, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words potential, health and/or risks:
“The planet on which we live is poorly organized, many areas are overpopulated, others are reserved for a few, technology’s potential is only in part realized, and most people are starving.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“The years when we are parenting teenagers are the high point, the crest when everything seems to be in bright colors and in ten-foot letters.”
—Jean Jacobs Speizer. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Collective, ch. 4 (1978)
“If the children and youth of a nation are afforded opportunity to develop their capacities to the fullest, if they are given the knowledge to understand the world and the wisdom to change it, then the prospects for the future are bright. In contrast, a society which neglects its children, however well it may function in other respects, risks eventual disorganization and demise.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)