Sunscreen is Safe. Stop Listening to Fearmongering TikTok Quacks

It’s summertime here in the Northern Hemisphere, and you know what that means: falling asleep on the beach and waking up cooked like a lobster, which you then attempt to alleviate by stumbling over to the beach bar and downing Long Island iced teas, because that sounds delicious and hydrating, and then coating yourself in aloe vera and falling asleep in bed, leading to you waking up the next morning looking and feeling like Peter Venckmen in the New York Public Library.

Okay, just to be clear, please do not do that. I actually DID do that in my early 20s and basically every choice I made was wrong: don’t go to the beach without sun protection, don’t fall asleep on the beach, and absolutely do NOT try to recover from a sunburn, which can severely dehydrate you, by chugging alcohol, which also severely dehydrates you. Chug water, for fuck’s sake.

The aloe? Well, that probably did help. At least one randomized controlled trial of only 20 participants found it to be no different from a placebo when treating sunburn, but aloe IS a known anti-inflammatory, and so many more have shown the opposite, as detailed in this 2019 systematic review of 23 trials (of which 5 related to the treatment of burns) that concluded “Aloe vera was more effective than petroleum jelly gauze dressing, silver sulfadiazine 1% ointment, and framycetin cream. Moreover, it reduced the recovery time, prevented infection in the wound area, and prevented redness and itching. In these studies, Aloe vera was more effective in first- and second-degree burn wounds than in the other degrees. As described in Table 1, it is concluded that Aloe vera can reduce the healing time of first- and second-degree burns to 9 days.”

But cleaning the sheets was annoying and gross. Prevention (which aloe vera probably does not do anything for) is truly better.

The problem is this: what’s the best way to prevent sunburn? It seems like every summer, I get people writing in to ask if it’s true that sunscreen is actually bad for you. The usual reason for this is crunchy hippy “influencers” online claiming that because sunscreen is full of chemicals that we rub all over our skin, our bodies absorb those chemicals and that could lead to problems. Usually cancer. And it’s not only individuals on TikTok spreading these ideas–once or twice a year I see the mainstream news credulously report results from groups like the Environmental Working Group, which has been fear-mongering about various common products for many years now.

In fact, it was an entire decade ago that Jenny Splitter, a writer for Grounded Parents, wrote this takedown of EWG’s specific sunscreen fearmongering. (Sorry for the archive.org link, but it’s too expensive for me to host the old Skepchick sister sites anymore.) She pointed out that each year, EWG put out a list of “dangerous” and “safe” sunscreens, and it just so happens that the board members of EWG own stakes in those safe versions and profit AGAIN by selling them through their list thanks to affiliate links.

The same scary ingredients EWG was crying about a decade ago are those mentioned every year by social media influencers: oxybenzone, which they claim causes hormonal changes, does “not demonstrate significant endocrine disruption, even with application of a formulation containing 10% oxybenzone. In fact, after 40 years of use, we are not aware of any published study that demonstrates acute toxic effects in humans with systemic absorption of oxybenzone,” say dermatologists in a letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Dermatology imprint. 

Those same scientists rebutted the claim that retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A, causes cancer: “there is no evidence that the inclusion of RP in sunscreens is photocarcinogenic in human beings,” and there have since been dozens of studies showing that RP is great for your skin.

And studies on sunscreen itself over the past 50 years has shown undeniable proof that they significantly reduce your chance of contracting skin cancer. In a systematic review of the dangers of sunscreen published last year, researchers found that other than the rare possibility of a skin allergy, the only potential issues (not proven) would be vitamin D deficiency and blood pressure issues due not to anything in the sunscreen but to a lack of direct sunlight on the body.

So no, you do not have to worry about the “chemicals” in sunscreen that protect you from issues like melanoma. Because seriously, sunburns lead to cancer: one study of more than 100,000 people over the course of 20 years found that getting five sunburns that blister between the ages of 15 and 20 increases the risk of melanoma by 80%.

Is chemical sunscreen the only protection you have? No! While it’s dangerous to scare people away from using it, it’s also not useful to tell people it’s all they can rely upon. You can also protect yourself by using products like this, which is a zinc sunscreen that physically limits the amount of sun that hits your skin and which is necessary if you do things like spend several hours in the water.

You can also wear sun-blocking clothing. Obviously, all clothes will block some amount of sun, but there are certain fabrics and weaves that do a better job at it and come with their own UPF rating (which is like SPF but for clothes).

Of course, you can also take the nerd route: just stay in your basement playing video games. But I do have to point out that getting a little sun IS good for you, as I learned when I spent a few winters in Buffalo, New York and had to take vitamin D supplements on my doctor’s orders. And being physically active outside is good for your physical and mental health any time of the year, so if you want to live your happiest and healthiest life, maybe try doing some things in real life every once in a while.

All of this video has been about how sunscreen is safe for you, the person applying it onto your skin. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t address how safe sunscreen is for the environment, because there IS some evidence to suggest that the sunscreen that washes off your skin and into the ocean might cause some trouble. The main focus of research thus far has been on coral.

In a review of the literature published in 2021 in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, environmental scientists point out that up to 14 different organic UV filters have been found concentrated in the water around coral reefs, which are currently suffering from a worldwide decline that has dangerous knock-on effects to the rest of our ecosystem. That correlation has led to a hypothesis that the bleaching of coral reefs may be exacerbated by these ingredients from people wearing sunscreen in the water as well as runoff, but the authors say that “there is limited evidence to suggest that their presence is causing significant harm to coral reefs.” That said, they want more careful monitoring because “it would be premature to conclude that environmental concentrations of UV filters do not adversely impact coral reefs.” So, the coral is probably dying thanks to bigger issues like rising temperatures and pollution, but sunscreen might be making things worse.

The limited evidence on this has led to some areas like Hawaii requiring people to only wear “reef safe” sunscreens, which most often means they forgo some of the chemicals most likely to affect coral, like octinoxate and oxybenzone. Those sunscreens tend to be much more expensive, and the benefits aren’t yet well-studied, but it’s certainly something to consider if you plan to be in or near the ocean where coral reefs are trying to recover.

As for me, I try to wear sunscreen every day, because I tend to be outside every day cycling or hiking or surfing. And there’s evidence to suggest that everyone could benefit by doing that, even when it’s overcast outside. Your skin is your largest organ and the one most likely to get cancer, so take good care of it.