We can’t use normal sun cream?! Feel like everything is ‘bad’ for you now!

[whenimetyouinthesummer]

It feels like in the last few years we’ve gone from realising the (obvious) dangers of things like smoking to now, every tiny little thing is ‘bad for you’. We used to have a wood burning stove and had it removed because I saw (on here) about the links to cancer, particularly in children. Stopped using normal deodorant and switched to natural stuff because I read it wasn’t good for you, which really you can’t imagine spraying an aerosol on your skin daily is going to be that great for you. Found it doesn’t really work though and if I’m going to the gym I will end up going back to my old one.

Last week I read an article claiming sun cream is causing skin cancer and not the sun. Dismissed it really but tonight I’ve read an article that’s popped up about mineral sun creams, creating a physical natural barrier to UV rays rather than using chemicals in sun cream to block the rays. It says you should be using these instead of chemical sun creams (all the normal popular ones). Again, makes sense but there doesn’t seem to be all that much research into them yet. What if they don’t actually block the harmful rays? It feels like every single thing is going to end up being labelled as harmful, when all you’re trying to do is protect you/your kids as best you can 🤦🏻‍♀️ Do you go along with these things or think they’re nonsense?

Obviously I meant the illegal street ones 🙄

I've literally just watched an Instagram reel about sunscreens that are safe and those that are not. They used the Yuka app to rate them. No idea is yuka funded by a mineral sunscreen company though! As with most things I try and get a decent compromise. I can't afford mineral all over sunscreen for us all so use the best I can afford. If I didn't ha e a wood burner we would all have colds it's my main heat source so I make sure I use decent dry fuel.
I think you can just do your best and try not to get too obsessed with it all because most of it is beyond our control anyway

Perhaps we go different places! I tend to wear maxi dresses too, I suppose.

I get it OP. My kids are in their 20s now but were at primary school when stuff about the health hazards of processed meat were in the news, they had ham sandwiches in their lunchboxes for years by then. (Of course now we're much more aware of the stuff around all processed foods.) We were also encouraged - in fact instructed - to make sure our kids had bottles of water with them at all times. Over the years I literally woke up in a cold sweat several times over the thought of the microplastics I had inadvertently exposed them to!

This year it's sunscreen and forever chemicals in fruit (strawberries are the worst offenders apparently, part of my 'healthy' breakfast for in summertime for many years!) I think all you can do is take the information and bear it in mind when making your choices as a consumer, do a bit of research but not get obsessed with these 'risks'. Basically, modern life is pretty toxic but humans are remarkably resilient!

Do you go along with these things or think they’re nonsense?
I wouldn't read anything and simply believe it to be true. I also cannot imagine reading something on MN and just running with it.

Sun cream, for example. I will continue to use it when I need to because it is safe and it is effective. The manufacture, and ingredients, are highly regulated and the sun is still far more dangerous than applying sunscreen 🤷‍♀️
I also use 'normal' deodorant because there is no evidence that they are not safe.

So no. I don't 'go along' with these things.

You wouldn’t stick your kid in front of a car tail pipe would you? So why stick them in front of a wood burner? It’s the same particulate matter

It's not that straightforward when wood burners also have multiple benefits - they keep you warm and also help keep your home warm (and dry, and free of mould or damp).

When our boiler broke a couple of years ago I was incredibly glad to have access to our burner - yes, it had risks but sitting in a damp, mouldy house has risks too.

And yes, I know not everyone who has a wood burner uses it because it's a necessity, but my point is that your argument about exhaust pipes isn't as straightforward as you're making it out to be.

It's quite insane really, that the sun, which has always been there, is so much more dangerous than man made chemicals.

Something will get us all in the end. None of us can avoid toxins so we all just do what sits right with us as individuals I think.

People will pick up on this and say oh I'm not using suncream then, it's full of dangerous chemicals, whilst still being happy to go for a spray tan, spray perfume round themselves, dye their hair, put on make up and various serums, pour zoflora down the toilet, spray chemical cleaners all round the kitchen, switch on their plug in air fresheners, drink alcohol, eat charred sausages from a bbq and sit in front of their wood burner.

Suncream is necessary, put it on your kids if not yourself.

Badger sunscreen is great, cerave, organic children.

It’s always been there, but in the meantime we’ve emigrated to climates not suited to our skin colour, and there’s a hole in the ozone layer.

Water’s quite a dangerous chemical too if you drink too much of it…

Also, until relatively recently people did all they could to stay out of it! My GF, who worked outdoors, always wore a hat, long sleeves and a neckerchief.

She’s great

but if you go on holiday do you not lie by the pool at all

nope, never. I will be so bored. I'll spend 10 minutes on a beach, tops.

Anyway I will stick with factor 50 and currently use Nivea (body) or La Roche Posay (face). And sunglasses with UV protection. I keep forgetting it with sandals though, if I ever get skin cancer it will be on my feet!

Yes I think any sort of artificial perfume is really bad for us.

Look at the stats on reports too. For example the Daily Fail once reported that eating too much of an ingredient increased chance of getting a particular illness by a third, but the chance of getting that illness anyway was 1%, so it increased the chance of getting it to just 1.33%.
That paper will also report on one study with a low number of participants, not peer reviewed etc, and report it as a definite finding, not a preliminary finding needing more studies and reviews.
I just follow the idea of everything in moderation, plenty of our ancestors lived to old age.

You sound very easily led op.

Cant believe you took a wood burner out because of mumsnet.

It's true that you can't avoid everything that's potentially dangerous but with the destruction of the o-zone layer, the sun is much stronger than it used to be.

Also, in properly hot countries, people do avoid the midday sun - it only seems to be in the UK that we like to stay outside in it for as long as possible, wearing as little as possible.

I think we need to take the "causes cancer" with a bit of caution as there's a lot of quite iffy information being floated about.
Someone who uses a lot of sunscreen is most likely to be going in the sun after all.

There is a good case for avoiding the hottest part of the day to start with, using barriers like wide brim hats, sunglasses, clothing and also looking at mineral sunscreen (which I use due to allergies anyway) but using some standard sunscreen is very unlikely to be the issue.

As to deodorant, use a standard roll on, means you aren't inhaling the spray. And wood burning stoves? Haven't we always had wood burning stoves? I'm not convinced it's a main driver though they affect air quality overall so reduction in use isn't a bad thing, they do aggravate asthma for instance

Thanks for that video, I ended up down a rabbit hole re Andrew Huberman’s love life!

I always use mineral sunscreen, they aren’t all expensive. Holland & Barratt have one. But then I have ‘normal’ sunscreen in the foundation that I use so I’m not really gaining anything.

@parkrun500club

Me neither and snap on the sandals. The only way I sit still on holiday is to read and always in the shade.

I'm not disagreeing that the sun is bad for our skin, I'm just making an observation.
So many toxins, and our human behaviour causing pollution, as well as people still chasing a sun tan.

Not anything. It will depend on the size and polarity of the molecules.

We are overwhelmed with toxic chemicals in our lives now.

All the toiletries, cleaning products, new furniture, car fumes, paint, smoke, coatings on everything, chemicals in food, it's all contributing to our life expectancy getting shorter.

But it's hard to cut it all out.

Try a tinted sunscreen. More and more brands are doing them. Besides acting as kind of a foundation tinted sunscreens also block out visible light. It’s the better option for people especially people of colour who have issues of hyperpigmentation and melasma.

From a dermatology website:

The content of iron oxide and pigmentary titanium dioxide differentiates tinted sunscreens from nontinted sunscreens. Nontinted sunscreens offer protection against UVL, whereas tinted sunscreens, containing iron oxides, provide dual protection against both UVL and VL. The addition of iron oxides in tinted sunscreen is thought to contribute to the potential improvement of hyperpigmentation and the prevention of melasma relapses