By: Katie Athearn

Does Sunscreen have your back?

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Skin Cancer According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, one

in five Americans will develop skin cancer

in the course of a lifetime. About 90

percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers are

associated with exposure to ultraviolet

(UV) radiation from the sun, and about 86

percent of melanomas can be attributed

to exposure to UV radiation from the sun.

A person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns at any age and one or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence more than double a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life. Melanoma kills more than 8,000 Americans each year. If you’re one of those people who are adamant about always wearing sunscreen, you might think you’re safe from all these alarming statistics. Think again. Sunscreen is not always enough to protect you from the sun’s harmful rays.

Ultra-Violet Rays• The rays everyone needs to worry about are ultraviolet

(UV) rays. The two of concern are called UVA and UVB

rays. UVA rays penetrate deeper into the skin and are

more associated with skin aging while UVB rays are

shorter and more associated with sunburns. Both rays

can cause skin cancer. In order to protect yourself, it is

necessary to wear sunscreen, but you should also know

that it cannot fully shield your body from the sun’s rays.

What Does SPF mean?

• SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor. It refers to the sunscreen’s ability to protect your skin from the damaging UVB rays. The SPF value refers to the amount of times longer it would take your skin to burn while using sunscreen compared to if you weren’t wearing sunscreen. For example, SPF 30 means that it would take your skin 30 times longer to get the same sunburn that you would get without wearing any sunscreen.

• So the logical thing to do would be to use the highest SPF possible, right? Wrong. The mentality of the consumer who wants maximum protection from the sun might be to purchase high SPF sunscreen, but often times it can end up being less protective than a lower SPF. Sunscreen is not as effective if used improperly, and a high SPF value can sometimes make people feel invincible, leading to misuse of the product. People will apply and reapply sunscreen less often and stay out in the sun longer than they would if they were using a lower SPF, overexposing them to harmful UVA and UVB rays. The FDA says it does not have adequate data to say that an SPF greater than 50 provides more protection than an SPF of 50. Consequently, in 2011, the FDA proposed the banning of sunscreens with an SPF greater than 50, saying that they are misleading, but it has not been put into action as of right now.

FDA’s Recent Regulations Within the past couple years, the FDA has

reevaluated sunscreen products on the market and found some need for improvements. New labels and regulations have been required for non-prescription sunscreen products. Since previous sunscreen products did not provide much or any protection against UVA rays, new measures have been taken to do so. The FDA requires companies to label sunscreens that protect against UVA and UVB rays as “Broad Spectrum” sunscreen along with the SPF value. It is recommended that you use a sunscreen labeled “Broad Spectrum” with an SPF of at least 15. Any sunscreen not labeled as “Broad Spectrum” or that has an SPF value between 2 and 14 has only been shown to help prevent sunburn, not to decrease the risk of skin cancer and skin aging.

• The FDA also stated that there is no such thing as “waterproof” or “sweatproof” sunscreens and required all companies to remove those labels from their products. No matter what, a sunscreen’s effectiveness is not the same after coming into contact with water. However, if a product passes certain tests, companies can label them as “water resistant” sunscreen with the amount of time it is water resistant; only 40 or 80 minutes is allowed. “Drug Facts” must also be included somewhere on the container of the product.

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• There is no proof that sunscreens prevent most skin cancer, and no sunscreen completely blocks UV rays.