Some info on sunscreens...

[Guest guest]

I've seen a lot of discussion on sunscreens on this site recently, which brought

to mind an article I read a couple of years ago. Below is a link to an article

in the news magazine Science News discussing various types of sunscreens. It's

a tiny bit technical [though not too bad]. I'll summarize a few of the points,

and those interested folks can read the article themselves, and draw their own

conclusions:

1) There is no such thing as a chemical-free sunscreen. The common perception

that sunscreens containing 'chemicals' such as PABA, PARSOL... are 'bad' and

that those sunscreens containing no chemicals are 'good' are misleading. Look

inside a tube of chemical-free sunscreen, and you'll see lots of stuff, this

stuff is composed of various chemicals. Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are

chemicals, too. Each type of sunscreen can have potentially beneficial and

harmful effects. Yeah, PABA is definitely not recommended these days, but that

doesn't mean other sunscreens should be painted with the same bad rap, nor are

they free from potentially harmful side effects.

2) Sunscreens work in 2 basis ways, by either absorbing light or by scattering

light. The 'chemical' sunscreens typically absorb light, the 'chemical-free'

sunscreens typically scatter light. Light contains energy, research is being

done on where the energy goes, this redirected energy can do some bad things to

living cells. For example, the old fashioned zinc oxide you used to see life

guards wearing at the beach works by scattering light, the newer micronized zinc

oxide (invisible after application) is actually smaller particles of the same

zinc oxide, and also works by scattering light. Because the smaller zinc oxide

can be absorbed into skin cells, is there a higher risk of damage to skin cell

dna, resulting in more skin cancer???

3) I wear both types of sunscreen, depending on my activity. But primarily I

try to stay OUT of the sun as much as possible, yet I do a fair amount of

outdoor activities, and I rely on my wide brim hat as an important part of my

sun protection. Before photoderm, I couldn't wear any sunscreen, I reacted so

badly to them. Now I can tolerate wearing sunscreens MUCH better.

If you are interested in reading more, the link to the article is

http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/6_6_98/bob2.htm

You may have to cut & paste the link into the address field on your browser.

Cheers.

Dan

Dan

President

Responsible Metal Fab, Inc.

1256 N. Lawrence Station Road

Sunnyvale, CA 94089

fax