What are the harmful chemicals in sunscreen?
The science on ingredient toxicity
- Oxybenzone. The most worrisome sunscreen active ingredient is oxybenzone, according to publicly available scientific research.
- Octinoxate (Octyl methoxycinnamate)
- Homosalate.
- Octisalate.
- Octocrylene.
- Avobenzone.
- Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.
- Other active ingredients.
Is octinoxate a chemical sunscreen?
Octinoxate is one of the strongest chemical sun blocks available and a huge majority of brands still use it. However, natural mineral sunscreens are on the rise. Where conventional sunscreens use chemicals like octinoxate to absorb and filter the sun’s harmful rays, mineral sunscreens work by deflecting the sun.
Which sunscreens are chemical free?
8 Clean Sunscreens
- The Organic Pharmacy Cellular Protection Sun Cream SPF 30.
- UnSun Mineral Tinted Face Sunscreen SPF 30.
- The Organic Pharmacy Cellular Protection Sun Cream SPF 50.
- Saie Sunvisor.
- Beautycounter Countersun Mineral Sunscreen Lotion SPF 30.
- Beautycounter Dew Skin Moisturizing Coverage.
What are the ingredients in a chemical sunscreen?
In response, the FDA redid the study, this time including six active ingredients in chemical sunscreens: avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, octisalate, and octinoxate. Those ingredients are the UV filters that screen out the sun’s harmful rays.
What are the most harmful chemicals in sunscreen?
I am focusing on the ones that are commonly known as harmful due to hormone disrupters and what they do to the coral reefs. Oxybenzone and Octinoxate appear to be two of the most harmful chemicals found in sunscreen, for the reefs, marine life, and you.
How does exposure to sunscreen affect your body?
Exposure to Chemicals in Sunscreen. Many of these chemicals are considered hormone disruptors. Hormone disruptors can affect how estrogen and other hormones act in the body, by blocking them or mimicking them, which throws off the body’s hormonal balance. Because estrogen can make hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer develop and grow,…
What are the dangers of adding oxybenzone to sunscreen?
The most worrisome is oxybenzone, which was added to nearly 65 percent of the non-mineral sunscreens in EWG’s 2018 sunscreen database. Oxybenzone can cause allergic skin reactions (Rodriguez 2006). In laboratory studies it is a weak estrogen and has potent anti-androgenic effects (Krause 2012, Ghazipura 2017).
