Sunscreen news

[VeloVT]

Michellem & Katluvr --
I think what is concerning is that, as I understand it (and I could have this wrong), UVB rays are responsible for sunburns. UVA rays, on the other hand, are responsible for a lot of deeper damage that doesn't necessarily cause obvious immediate symptoms like sunburns, but leads to premature aging and possibly skin cancer.

So, if your sunblock doesn't have adequate UVA protection but DOES have adequate UVB protection, you could be protected from burns (and thus think you are just fine), but still get that other, more insidious damage. You can't assess whether or not your sunscreen protects you from UVA based on whether or not you burn.

But even the EWG report (which I still think is WAY overblown) says something like 7 or 15 percent of sunblocks DON'T protect against UVA -- which means between 85-93 per cent of drugstore sunscreens DO protect against UVA, and it's pretty easy to verify which ones do by looking at the ingredient list.

I believe in Europe sunscreens are given two ratings, one that is like SPF (which measure UVB protection) and one that addresses UVA protection... we should probably do that here too...