Best Sunscreens & Toxic Ones to Avoid

It’s no secret that the sun (in moderate doses) provides all sorts of health benefits, including helping our bodies manufacture vital vitamin D. With warmer weather right around the corner, though, many people are looking for the best sunscreens to cut their risk of sun overexposure, sunburns and possibly skin cancer  

Environmental Working Group’s 15th annual Guide to Sunscreens is a mix of good and bad news when it comes to the state of sunscreens sold in American and beyond. For instance, oxybenzone — a suspected hormone-disrupting chemical that is readily absorbed into the body — is now present in 40 percent of  the 1,800 products EWG investigated. While that may seem high, consider this: two years ago, about 60 percent of sunscreens contained this concerning chemical.

In December, the National Toxicology Program released findings linking oxybenzone exposure to a higher risk of thyroid tumors in female rats. And at the end of March, the European Commission, which reviews ingredient safety in Europe, published a final opinion finding oxybenzone unsafe for use at current levels.

“Yet again, the sunscreen market is flooded with products that use potentially harmful ingredients and provide poor UVA protection,” said Leiba. “EWG’s guide is one of the only tools available to help consumers find products that provide adequate protection and are made without ingredients that may pose health concerns.

“U.S. sunscreens will not sufficiently improve until the Food and Drug Administration sets stronger regulations, restricts the use of harmful chemicals and approves new active ingredients that offer stronger UVA and UVB protection without concern of causing harm,” says Nneka Leiba, EWG vice president of Health Living Science.

Sunscreen Chemicals Build Up in Your Blood

The effects of sunscreen may linger longer than expected, too. An FDA-led 2020 study found that “chemical sunscreen ingredients are systemically absorbed after one application, and some ingredients can stay in the blood for at least three weeks.”

The sunscreen chemicals tested include avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, octisalate and octinoxate, and all six active ingredients tested readily absorbed into the bloodstream of humans in the study — and at concentrations that surpass an important FDA safety threshold.

This builds on previous research showing that sunscreen chemicals hit the bloodstream within a day of using them — and at levels high enough to prompt a government investigation on safety.

“We slather these ingredients on our skin, but these chemicals haven’t been adequately tested,” Leiba says. “This is just one example of the backward nature of product regulation in the U.S.”

Beyond safety issues is another question: Does sunscreen even work? Environmental Working Group’s found that nearly 75 percent of sunscreens don’t work and/or contain concerning ingredients that are readily absorbed by the body.

Things may be slowing moving in the right direction, but for now, the onus is still on the consumer to find sunscreen that’s safer and actually works.