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?

Surely some of anything on our skin will end up in the blood stream though

I have skin cancer and my doctor just told me to just get a high spf didn’t mention mineral or the like.

A few summers ago I went to a pub garden with my son and grandchildren. I wasn’t wearing sun cream and although we were under a parasol my right arm was exposed to the sun. A few weeks later I noticed a mole on my right hand that I was convinced hadn’t been there before. I went to the doctors and they said it didn’t look concerning (I didn’t tell them it was a new mole because I really wasn’t sure). Over the weeks it changed colour, it wasn’t round, and I went back to the doctor. Even then she didn’t think it looked ‘too concerning’ but referred me to the hospital. They removed it and I had a follow up appointment where I was told that yes, it was a melanoma and just to be on the safe side I needed a wide excision and a skin graft. So one afternoon in the sun caused skin cancer. I know this because I don’t go out much and usually wear sun cream as I have fair skin. I later found a photo I had been in about a year before the cancer and sure enough, there was no mole on my hand. So even if there are reports that sun cream may not be safe, in my experience it is a LOT safer than exposure to the sun.

Where are you reading this stuff? With all due respect, I'm so tired of one scare mongering article and suddenly it's a crisis.

We all need to better learn to understand and assess risk, and tangentially, to accept that some risks are inevitable. Its like with vaccines - the risk of long term harm as a result are there. But they're extremely extremely low and much much lower than the risk of harm as a result of getting one of these diseases. But somehow, unless it's RISK FREE people don't want to do it.

The risk of skin cancer as a result of unprotected exposure to the sun is huge. This is a well documented and proven fact. In my case, the risk is even higher than the general population as my family has a history of skin cancer, most likely at least partly as a result of our ridiculously fair skin and the fact that we burn easily. The very small risk that might come with certain SPF products is one I am more than willing to live with, particularly as skin care specialists continue to work to improve and enhance these.

I sit by the pool under a sunshade and with a hat on, but not for long and have factor 50 on but perhaps the wrong one reading this ! Wear a rash vest in the pool.

I've always wondered about the safety of the chemical sunscreens tbh. The body can absorb so many things transdermally that it's inevitable that some highly complex chemicals are getting in that way and the long term effects will only just be starting to show.

I have rarely used them, only when I absolutely need too (like on my face when skiing), otherwise I'm careful to just limit my exposure and cover up whenever possible.

The old adage that numbers will admit to anything if you torture them enough is very true. It's like when there is a survey 50% of people would....... well it's not 50% of people is it, it's 50% of the people you asked, and you only asked 10!

This is sounding like the panicking about UPF and the complete lack of any sensible discourse around it. I've been on so many threads on UPF where genuine concerns are completely overshadowed by lack of understanding and ridiculous sources.

It's very simple.

The sun is very dangerous to us.
Sun screen is the easiest and most effective way to protect ourselves.
We should absolutely think about what sunscreens we use and increasingly we'll be making more efforts for natural, gentle solutions. But what is on the market today is nonetheless widely agreed to be safe. And definitely safer than being in the sun without sunscreen.

The end.

Just to add though about the 1% —> 1.33% example. Fully agree that this is likely not what most people will have in mind when they think ‘a third more likely’. (It feels intuitively like a big number – like your risk might go from 33% to 66%)

However 0.33% is still significant. This is an extra 3 people in 1000, or in an average-sized town of 160,000, an extra 528 people.

I have an autoimmune condition which makes me susceptable to UA & UV so wear spf 50. I use a brand called Altruist developed by oncologist cheap good quality % profit go towards charity. Unsure he would give you a product that would cause a problem.

Mineral suncream gives me awful spots are dry skin. A hat does not.

The problem is that any random person can say random shite and people still think if it's online it's the truth.
Suncream does not give you cancer
Deodorant does not give you cancer (saying that as a natural deodorant user first other reasons)
Rosemary oil does not make your hair grow
Castor oil does not cure everything. Putting it in your belly button does not leech out toxins

'Science' podcasts are not the same as peer reviewed science research.

We’ll obviously not. You must find yourself busy if you feel the need to point this sort of thing out

Anyone using mineral sunscreen thinking they are being smart and avoiding chemicals need to check if their sunscreen contains butyloctyl salicylate..

Butyloctyl salicylate is octisalate's cousin. Octisalate is one of the most common chemical filters. Octisalate isn't in mineral filters. Instead what many MANY mineral sunscreen companies do is include butyloctyl salicylate. They say it's to make the cream pleasant to use. What they don't tell you is that it is a chemical UV filter and it boosts the mineral sunscreens UV protection. They get around calling it a mineral only sunscreen because butyloctyl salicylate is technically Not regulated as a sunscreen. So they can say the sunscreen has no chemical sunscreen filters in it. That's not to say it doesn't have chemicals in it. Just that it has no regulated chemical sunscreen filters.
So they use an unregulated chemical sunscreen filter and claim the sunscreen is mineral.

Why?
Because it is really hard to make nice mineral sunscreens that are cosmetically pleasant to use.

So people are unknowingly using a mineral sunscreen that contains an unregulated sunscreen chemical thinking they are somehow better off than using a chemical sunscreen. With regulated chemical filters in them.

It depends. NANO Zinc oxide and NANO titanium dioxide found in nicer to use mineral sunscreens are terrible for reef life

Regular non nano particle zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are not as bad for reef life

@MelifluousMint
My point is that people naively think a podcast hosted by a 'scientist' is gospel

The fact is most of the time the credentials are dubious. If they are actually even a scientist they are way outside their lane. Dermatologists are skin specialists but they are not chemists. It's like GP know what to prescribe but they don't know the process by which drugs work. That's what pharmacists and pharmacologists do.

Worse, there are lots of science podcasts where a psychologist or science enthusiast is waxing on about topics they have no knowledge. But they don a white coat and sound 'sciencey' and fool gullible people who have no critical thinking skills

I think a little cynicism over what you read can be quite helpful.

https://hopevalleyclimateaction.org.uk/are-wood-stoves-bad-for-your-health/

This is helpful re perspective re open fires and I think the logic is likely to be similar for sunscreen.

I hear you OP. After a few years of soaring cholesterol and other minor health issues I tried really hard these past 6 months to eat healthily and reduce foods that are damaging to the planet. I went to GP today and was told I need to increase red meat in my diet. I give up. I'm going on the piss tonight and probably will get chips on the way home. Can't bloody win.

I always feel rather sceptical about sun cream as I know of two families whose DC decided it would be good to put sunscreen on their cars and it ruined the paintwork with them both needing a panel repainted.

Should we really be put something on our skin that ruins car paintwork?

Hahaha just saw this 😂

I genuinely don’t think people know the risks at all. We didn’t. I didn’t even consider there was a potential huge issue with it when we got our wood burner. Half our street had got them, they seemed to be very ‘in’. You just assume if everyone has something it isn’t going to be some massive danger. Then when you actually google it, the results of all of these studies are terrifying 😭 It said in some cases babies can be at greater risk if their mother used a wood burner in the 6 months before they were pregnant or something to that extent. Crazy! Maybe one day future humans (who have solved and removed every cancer risk) will look back at us and think it was all so obvious and what were we thinking 🤦🏻‍♀️

Is this a genuine question?

It is best to be covered up in the sun rather than wear sunscreen.