Best Sunscreen? How to Pick a Safe and Non-Toxic Sunscreen

Well, we found an interesting blog written by Pure Bliss, a baby products brand located in Los Angeles, CA.  It covers how to pick the best sunscreen for your child as well as some vital information on sunscreens. There are as many sunscreens on the market today as there are toxic ingredients in them!  How do you pick the best sunscreen?  Sunscreens should be all-natural and the active ingredients should either contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide or both.  There is no other "natural" active ingredients out there. We thought we would share the blog with you so that you could read up on more important factors. Here is a snippet of their blog on how to pick the best sunscreen:

There are so many options when searching for a sunscreen and lots of things to remember. Which chemicals are bad? What offers the most protection? What SPF should I buy? Here are some quick tips to make it a bit easier.

• Choose a Broad Spectrum Protection
• No Spray Sunscreens
• No Super-High SPFs
• No Oxybenzone and Other Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals
• No Retinyl Palmitate

1) You’ll want a sunscreen with broad-spectrum for both UVB and UVA. There are many Ingredients with broad-spectrum protection but some you want to steer clear of. Find one that has titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. There are varying opinions about the risks of using nano particles in sunscreens. Too much to go into here, but please read this article from the Environmental Working Group for a very good understanding of the subject.

2) No Spray Sunscreens

Given the ease of applying them on squirming kids and hard-to-reach areas, these popular aerosolized sunscreens may seem like a real convenience, but they may pose serious inhalation risks. Even though the Food and Drug Administration has expressed concern about the safety and efficacy of spray sunscreens, companies continue to put them on the market.

3) No Super-High SPFs

Products with sky-high SPFs may protect against sunburn but could leave your skin exposed to damaging UVA rays. SPF stands for “sun protection factor,” and refers only to protection against UVB radiation, which burns the skin. It has little to do with protection from sun’s UVA rays, which penetrate deep into the skin, suppress the immune system, accelerate skin aging and may cause skin cancer. High-SPF products may give people a false sense of security, tempt them to stay in the sun too long, suppress sunburns but upping the risk of other kinds of skin damage. The FDA is considering limiting SPF claims to 50+, as is done in other countries.

4) No Oxybenzone and other endocrine disrupting chemicals

Commonly used in sunscreens, the chemical oxybenzone penetrates the skin, gets into the bloodstream and acts like estrogen in the body. It can trigger allergic reactions. Data are preliminary, but studies have found a link between higher concentrations of oxybenzone and health harms. One study has linked oxybenzone to endometriosis in older women; another found that women with higher levels of oxybenzone during pregnancy had lower birth weight daughters.

5) No Retinyl Palmitate

When used in a night cream, this form of vitamin A is supposed to have anti-aging effects. But on sun-exposed skin, retinyl palmitate may speed development of skin tumors and lesions, according to government studies. Why is this “inactive ingredient” allowed in sunscreens intended for use in the sun? Good question. The FDA has yet to rule on the safety of retinyl palmitate in skin care products, but it is recommended that consumers avoid sunscreens containing this chemical.

My personal favorite, which is not on the list yet, as it is a fairly new product is from Beauty by Earth.

To read the full blog, visit their website at www.pureblissusa.com 

Have a healthy and happy Summer!