New online trend to say it's better not to wear sunscreen

[Mummabear04]

Has anyone else come across this? People claiming sunscreen is carcinogenic and that you shoud never use it. These people are not even putting it on their kids?! Am I the only one who thinks this is absolute madness?

It's not a new trend, it's always been well known. Were you not advised by the midwife to not put sunscreen on a baby until 6 months old? did you not think there's a reason for that?

Agreed. Plus most people don't have the chemistry knowledge to understand the list of ingredients let alone the purpose of each one.
Many people in this country don't go outdoors much in autumn, winter and spring (which would help a little with the vitamin d) and then go mad during their two weeks in Spain, turkey or Greece by roasting on the beach after a performance application of sunscreen to their partner🤢.

My friend told me this yesterday. What I find strange is that she believes in every conspiracy theory. There no "I'm anti vax and think covid was man made but the twin towers was terrorism" she buys into EVERY theory. It's a bit tedious when I have a biology degree to told the sun doesn't cause cancer because no one had skin cancer 100 years ago. She's got no gcses but I'm the thick one.

People piss all over science now it seems. Some dick on the Web un does years of research. People want and need a happy answer more than they need facts right now. Get stage 4 cancer and you can be sold a happy dream that there's a cure. Don't wear sunscreen and you won't get cancer. People don't want to randomly blow you to pieces - it's a planned out by the government. Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.

Critical thinking is a rapidly dieing skill.

I don’t usually pull the “it didn’t do us any harm when we were kids” argument 😂 as it’s usually nonsense but parents rarely put sunscreen on children in the UK when I was a child, even in the heatwave of 1976. We spent a lot more time playing outside than the average DC now.

I absolutely agree that everyone needs sun protection but there are other ways to do that effectively in the UK most of the year - sun hats, long sleeves, rash vests etc. We never got sunburnt or even tanned. We always seemed to be under a parasol/sunshade for shade at picnics, barbecues, on the beach etc.

TBH, dressing for the weather/staying out of the sun is probably far healthier than slathering yourself in chemicals and possibly more effective. Nor is there any risk that the sunscreen has been washed or rubbed off.

Edited to clarify that I don’t mean that the sun didn’t harm us, I mean that we were able to protect ourselves in other ways than using sunscreen.

I remember watching a documentary many years ago about a study that had apparently shown that sunscreen takes the suns dangerous rays deeper into the skin layers. I never researched this further.

We use sunscreen but I'm quite lazy about reapplying, definitely not as often as the bottles say as it's a pain to get the kids still enough and they are fairly well covered/in shade. I don't think it's enough to avoid the sun at midday though - on a day like today the UV index is high until 2pm and then medium until 4pm, which is enough to burn without sunscreen.

God I hate the sun cream debate. Especially when you don’t protect kids.

skin cancer is horrendous. I’ve witnessed it twice in family members; one dead, one still having chunks of flesh cut out of them every few months in a bid to fight it. Both got it on their head/face; both big time sun-sitters that tanned really well and never wore sun block because they never burned, just tanned to the most golden brown I’ve ever seen.

after witnessing them get skin cancer I will never not send my kids or myself out without it on between March-October. The risk isn’t worth it, even if there are some non-natural slightly nasties in the cream. No different to what’s being pumped into the ham sandwiches you feed your kids, or the chicken nuggets you allow them to have; the diet soft drinks ect. Pick your battles; sun screen is important.

Sun cancer usually takes time to catch up, I was the youngest by about 20/30 years getting treated for skin cancer at the hospital most were 50 60 and above so the “it didn’t do us harm” is yet to be seen for some people.

And are the people saying this milk bottle white redheads who burned every year as a child and have a parent who's had skin cancer several times? If not, I'm not going to be listening.

Not wanting to start a climate change derail but it's hotter now than it was in the 70s.

My parents always put sun cream on us when we were children.

I'm the same. Allergic to most moisturisers and have never found a suncream that my skin agrees with. I do use it sometimes (and did use it on my dc when little) but I now tend to sit in the shade, wear a hat and sunglasses and I don't sunbathe. The sun is actually one of the best cures for my eczema-prone skin.

Be interesting to see how Gen X turn out.

Even if you were suncreamed as a child, factor 8 was considered high and we had massive holes in the ozone layer.

I totally agree on the cancer side

But people are also starting to reduce giving things like ham and other ultra processed foods to their kids/family because of the problems with UPFs.
It is about balance, we’ve massively reduced UPFs, but I still wear normal sunscreen because I haven’t sussed out what is better and affordable because I don’t want the cancer risk (also lost relatives to cancer) BUT I’d like to reduce the toxins from products I’m using.
I think this is becoming a more normal and mainstream stance. people just probably don’t think about it until it affects them - eg. We’ve got fertility issues and so this information is quite readily available in terms of improving fertility and there’s plenty of research that supports it.

But I don’t go for other options because I think suncream is toxic, I do it because I’ve got zero tolerance to sun exposure. I think that’s what the OP is questioning.

Above 8 is considered very high but sun protection is recommended for UV levels above 3 because even that is considered high enough to damage some skin types.

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/causes-of-cancer/sun-uv-and-cancer/the-uv-index-and-sunburn-risk

There are 3 main types of skin cancer--squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and melanoma. The first two are slow growing and, while they can be disfiguring, are almost never deadly. Melanoma is deadly.

The medical press conflates all 3 types, which is journalistic malpractice. The first two can be prevented by suncream. Deadly melanoma, however, is NOT directly caused by the sun. It is a failure of the immune system, the risk of which is greatly reduced by keeping optimum levels of vitamin d. My doctor checks my vit d levels every year to make sure I stay in range and tells me how much to take, which is 5000 IU per day for me.

In the UK you don't have enough sun to keep optimum levels without supplementation. I live in Florida, am outside every day and still have to supplement vitamin d to maintain optimal levels, and I am a Caucasian of northern European ancestry (i.e., very pale.)

I only use suncream when I will be near the water for an extended period of time. I also use a retinol product on exposed areas every evening, which prevents squamous and basal cell carcinoma from forming. My dermatologist, who checks my skin for incipient cancer every year, approves of this.

Vitamin d is essential to reduce the risk, if not prevent, many types of cancer. If you insist on using suncream please supplement with vitamin d and get tested regularly by your GP.

I am of an age that good sunblock wasn't available when I was small. I remember getting painfully sunburned and always made sure this never happened to my DC. My fair skinned university flatmate who was bought up in Africa died in her 50s of skin cancer. Imo it's neglectful not to put sunscreen, hats and appropriate clothing on your kids in high summer.

I saw Lauryn Goodman post about that - says she’s trying to build up the kids melanin naturally, now all of a sudden she’s changed her tune to using organic sun creams now after she got a bit of backlash.

each to their own if they don’t want to use sun cream, but don’t put your kids in danger by not protecting their skin!

I think you are missing my point, @Alaoap. Have you ever been sunburnt or got tanned through a pair of jeans? Do you apply sunscreen under your clothes? Fabric can be a very effective sunscreen, often better than sunscreen. It doesn’t wash or rub off. Not all fabrics provide the same level of protection but all those shiny 1970s man made fabrics have a high UPF because they reflect the radiation 😂 Especially compared to average SPF/UPF of 70s sunscreen.

Hate sunscreen on my skin. The children were similar. We’re also red head, light skin so naturally want to stay out of strong sunlight 11:00 to 15:00. This combo is known to be sunlight intolerant, particularly eye-sight. So perhaps the rest of the world is now aligning with us and have returned to the saying - only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midnight sun. Just because the technology is there, doesn’t make its use a solution to a problem.

I’ve seen an awful vlogging family spouting this online whilst they’re in Dubai with their 6 kids in blistering heat.

Kelsey Parker as well now saying she uses a mix of stuff including beeswax. Sorry for DM link! The social media comments on it are all “well done her, toxic, the sun upgrades our DNA…”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14823651/Kelsey-Parker-fire-admitting-doesnt-SPF-children-lathers-organic-sunscreen-instead.html?ito=social-facebook-video&fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLCPaRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHj7bcVAVPPhFaCWy6N2QDHAvN4g2mBsFQFu8qOJbnq3WaCexuLmbePZ_k2_Z_aem_nbSo-Mes95ESdSG3rghc5A

You won’t get a vitamin D deficiency by wearing sunscreen on a hot day. Can you provide examples of people who have experienced this?!

Not wearing suncream because it’s carcinogenic? Do you know what IS carcinogenic? The sun!!