I don’t use sunscreen, mostly because I’m too lazy, but also because I figure it’s too late. I’ve had basal cell skin cancers, but no melanoma (the serious kind). Even so, I don’t use sunscreen. (Neither does my husband, who has had no skin cancer.)
Anyway, I just learned that sunscreen products commonly include
a chemical called nano-titanium dioxide (TiO2), a product that kills good
bacteria on your skin. The good bacteria include a common strain of Staphylococcus
epidermis. You don’t want to kill these bacteria. Richard Gallo,
Distinguished Professor and the Founding Chairman of the Department of
Dermatology at the University of California, San Diego tells us that “This
unique strain of skin bacteria produces a chemical that kills several types of
cancer cells but does not appear to be toxic to normal cells.” So—sunscreens
kill bacteria that kill cancer. “There is increasing evidence,” Gallo says, “that
the skin microbiome is an important element of human health. In fact, we previously
reported that some bacteria on our skin produce antimicrobial peptides that
defend against pathogenic bacteria such as Staph aureus.”
Perhaps not all sunscreens contain nano-titanium dioxide, but you can’t tell which have the chemical and which don’t. According to the National Institutes of Health, sunscreen producers are not required to list the ingredients. Thus, they report, consumers “…are unable to switch to an alternative because it is unknown to them which alternative does not contain the experimental material.” Because sunscreen ingredients are not labeled, The NIH calls the use of use of TiO2-containing sunscreens a “societal experiment.” (Incidentally, the International Agency of Research on Cancer (IARC) has categorized TiO2 as a potential human carcinogen.) At least I’m not an unwitting participant in an experiment.
For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.
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