When I was a child, my mother assiduously applied sunscreen on my sister and I when she thought we’d come in contact with direct sunlight for more than an hour. We had fair skin and easily burned; besides, she was all too aware of a history of cancer in her family. As I grew older, I moved away from slathering noxious-smelling white lotion all over the exposed parts of my body. It wasn’t like I had much reason to go outside in the arid region of Southern California, especially during the summer months, when temperatures often crossed the 120 °F mark.
My distaste for sunscreen sprang from a distaste for its application and the peculiarities of the region I spent a great deal of my life in, but I wasn’t wrong to view the white goop as suspect. A new study finds
Almost half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products may actually increase the speed at which malignant cells develop and spread skin cancer because they contain vitamin A or its derivatives, according to an evaluation of those products released today. … only 39 of the 500 products examined were considered safe and effective to use.
It is further posited that the Food and Drug Administration has been aware of this for up to a decade without sharing the information with the general public. No doubt the sunscreen lobby got to them. I guess sunscreen has a lobby now, but then again, which product on the market today doesn’t? There are a million well-paid flacks standing between government action that would benefit the people and malleable bureaucrats.
