This is directly taken from their site. You have to read this then click the link below to see where your sunscreen fits in and is ranked.
EWG’s (Environmental Working Group's) fourth annual Sunscreen Guide gives low marks to the current crop of sunscreen products, with a few notable exceptions. EWG researchers recommend only 39 – 8 percent – of 500 beach and sport sunscreens for this season.
The reason? A surge in exaggerated SPF claims above 50 and new disclosures about potentially hazardous ingredients, in particular recently developed government data linking the common sunscreen ingredient vitamin A to accelerated development of skin tumors and lesions.
Hats, clothing and shade are still the most reliable sun protection.
Products with high SPF ratings sell a false sense of security because most people using them stay out in the sun longer, still get burned (which increases risk of skin cancer) and subject their skin to large amounts of UVA radiation, the type of sunlight that does not burn but is believed responsible for considerable skin damage and cancer.
High SPF products, which protect against sunburn, often provide very little protection against UVA radiation.
Few people use enough sunscreen to benefit from the SPF protection promised on the label. Studies show that
people typically use about a quarter of the recommended amount. Because sunscreen effectiveness drops off precipitously when
under-applied,
in everyday practice a product labeled SPF 100 actually performs like SPF 3.2, an SPF 30 rating equates to a 2.3 and SPF 15 translates to 2. Moreover, FDA scientists say SPF claims above 50 cannot be reliably substantiated.
This year, new concerns have arisen about a form of vitamin A called retinyl palmitate, found in 41 percent of sunscreens. The FDA is investigating whether this compound may accelerate skin damage and elevate skin cancer risk when applied to skin exposed to sunlight.
FDA data suggest that vitamin A may be photocarcinogenic, meaning that in the presence of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, the compound and skin undergo complex biochemical changes resulting in cancer. The evidence against vitamin A is far from conclusive, but as long as it is suspect, EWG recommends that consumers choose vitamin A-free sunscreens.
EWG has again flagged products with oxybenzone, a hormone-disrupting compound found in about 60 percent of the 500 beach and sport sunscreens analyzed. The chemical penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream: biomonitoring surveys conducted by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have detected oxybenzone in the bodies of 97 percent of Americans tested.
In all, EWG researchers assessed about 1,400 products with SPF, including beach and sports lotions, sprays and creams, moisturizers, make-up and lip balms.
The 39 beach and sports products that earned EWG’s coveted “green” rating for safety and efficacy all contain the minerals zinc or titanium. We could find no non-mineral sunscreens that scored better than “yellow.”
Some of the blame falls on the
FDA, which has yet to finalize regulations for sunscreens promised since 1978. FDA officials estimate that the regulations may be issued next October – but even then, they expect to give manufacturers at least a year, and possibly longer, to comply with the new rules. That means the first federally regulated sunscreens won’t go on store shelves before the summer of 2012.
http://www.ewg.org/2010sunscreen/finding-the-best-sunscreens
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I use Mustela baby and California baby on the kids (Mustela barely squeaks by, and Cali baby is good) and then coppertone for husband and I which I will now be throwing out!!! Click the link and see why!
This summer we enrolled Landon in swim lessons with the Water Whisperer. This was not something Landon, or I was looking forward to. He was one of those kids who did not like swimming. He was very nervous, didn't like water in his face (not even in the bath!), and he was not happy about getting in the pool.
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