Sunscreen: Queen of summer or unnecessary Bummer?
It’s summer, so you probably have sunscreen on or plan to— but admit it, wouldn’t it be so much more enjoyable to feel the rays on your skin without sunscreen? No one likes the feeling of sunscreen on their skin, but we do it because it’s good for us.
But why is it good for us? What does SPF mean? What in the sunscreen actually helps prevent sunburn and UV rays?
First, we need to know what we’re up against. The sun. It’s big. It’s there. It’s hot. It can harm us with its UV radiation, which sunscreen helps protect against. There’s actually two types of UV radiation you need to protect your skin against: UVA and UVB.
Unfortunately, not all sunscreen can protect you against these two UV types: sunscreens that aren’t marked “broad spectrum” only protect against one type of UV radiation, which means you’re susceptible to the harm that the other kind can cause. Sunscreens that are less than 15 SPF also aren’t strong enough to protect against the long term effects of sun radiation.
In fact, either of the aforementioned sunscreen types legally have to have this warning on their packaging:
“Skin Cancer/Skin Aging Alert: Spending time in the sun increases your risk of skin cancer and early skin aging. This product has been shown only to help prevent sunburn, not skin cancer or early skin aging.”
But what’s in the sunscreen? There are loosely two categories of sunscreens depending on what ingredient is purported to help defend against sun damage: physical and chemical. How they work is that physical sunscreens block and scatter the UV rays before they reach your skin, while chemical sunscreens absorb them so that your skin doesn’t absorb them.
Many modern sunscreens combine both types of ingredients, which have been proven to be safe and effective.
While some people might erroneously think of physical sunscreens as “organic” due to their mineral composition, by definition, they are actually inorganic, while chemical UV filters are organic compounds.
That’s all fine and dandy, but WHAT is SPF? The higher the better, we know. But what is it a measurement of?
It’s actually a measurement of how long the sun would take to make your skin red, compared to your skin without sunscreen. So a sunscreen of 15 SPF would mean that it takes 15x as long for the sun to harm your skin as it would if you didn’t put on sunscreen. The CDC recommends that if you’ll be outside for an extended period of time to use at least a broad spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30. An SPF of 15 is fine if you’ll be inside most of the day and only briefly go outside.
All sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours or after swimming or sweating. A higher SPF doesn’t mean it works for longer, although it is better at blocking radiation. That means you can’t just pile on a three-inch layer of sunscreen, dip into the ocean, and cook out in the sun for another week before putting on sunscreen again.
Three inches is a bit much, but how much sunscreen do we actually need to put on? Chances are, it’s more than you think or want to hear. The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends applying an ounce of sunscreen (that’s a whole shot glass) at least every two hours.
So…sunscreen. It’s extremely helpful but sometimes a minor inconvenience. However, slathering on that bad boy might save you from cancer and other complications. So yeah, wear it…correctly.
References:
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2020. Sunscreen: How To Help Protect Your Skin From The Sun. Available at: <https://www.fda.gov/drugs/understanding-over-counter-medicines/sunscreen-how-help-protect-your-skin-sun> [Accessed 11 July 2020].
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2020. Sun Protection Factor (SPF). Available at: <https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/center-drug-evaluation-and-research-cder/sun-protection-factor-spf#:~:text=SPF%20is%20a%20measure%20of,value%20increases%2C%20sunburn%20protection%20increases.> [Accessed 11 July 2020].
The Skin Cancer Foundation. 2020. Sunscreen — The Skin Cancer Foundation. Available at: <https://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-prevention/sun-protection/sunscreen/#howmuch> [Accessed 11 July 2020].
