Saturday, May 31, 2008

First Bottles, Now Sunscreen



We live in the desert so we get A LOT of sun. We put sunscreen on every single day of the year. I was dismayed to run across this blog post about a chemical called oxybenzone,which is a common ingredient in sunscreens. Oxybenzone has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption, and cell damage. Even worse is that the FDA promised, in 1978 (!!!), to study sunscreen and provide guidelines for ingredients used to make it. Thirty years later... nada. Zippo. NOTHING! Just some "draft guidelines" for sunscreen makers to go by, which means they can do whatever they want including using chemicals not proven safe for humans.

This is a great link for sunscreen best for kids -- and a lot of other information on chemicals in products we use on our kids (including diaper wipes and toothpaste!). I'm a big fan of California Baby products and their sunscreen is on the "better" list. All the other sunscreen has been tossed and I'm headed to Whole Foods to see what they have on hand.

I really wish people would stop trying to make money while putting my kids'health at risk.

3 Thoughts From Others:

Karin said...

If you're willing to pay for access to his website, Kevin Trudeau spills the beans about a lot of these things. Sadly, it appears there have been studies that lean toward sunscreen as the culprit behind many cases of skin cancer and NOT a deterrent.

ErinOrtlund said...

I wonder if Melaleuca has anything that would work. I could always add on to my order and send you a product if you wanted.

Camille said...

Erin -- I can't find any ingredient lists on-line. I'm trying to avoid PEB-compounds, boric acid, sodium borate, BHA, etc. If you have more access to ingredient lists!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin