Men's Journal

It’s an ongoing battle to prevent cancer, and flawed sunscreens put you at even greater risk. Here’s what you need to know.

By John Hastings

By now, most of us are familiar with the research linking too much sun to skin cancer, and have made a begrudging habit of smearing on sunscreen in the belief that doing so will protect us. But it turns out we¹ve really just been lulled into a false sense of security.

Recent reports reveal that 92 percent of sunscreens — and all the major commercial brands in the U.S. — fail to block the sun’s most harmful ultraviolet rays. Yes, they’ll spare you a red neck or lobster-bright burn, but they do only half the job, repelling the sun’s burning rays but not the long-wave, black-light rays that penetrate deeper into the skin and pose the greater long-term health risk.

Despite Americans applying and reapplying their sunscreen (the market has grown from $1 billion in sales in 2001 to $4 billion this year), skin cancer is still the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million cases turn up every year, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation, and one in five people will be diagnosed with skin cancer during their lifetime. The most deadly form, melanoma, continues to rise even as the incidence of most other forms of cancer falls. And although melanoma accounts for only 3 percent of skin cancer diagnoses, it’s responsible for 75 percent of the deaths.

One reason skin cancer rates continue to rise unchecked is that the public is still ill-informed about how intense — and variable — ultraviolet (UV) radiation is. While most of our mothers told us to avoid the noontime sun, the sun’s rays are actually equally intense from 10 am all the way until 4 pm — and during the other daylight hours, UV rays diminish only 25 percent. Elevation is another big factor. UV rays increase by about 4 percent with every 1,000-foot jump in elevation. Above 12,000 feet you¹ve effectively doubled your UV exposure. Then there’s reflective UV: Being on snow increases the intensity of the rays by 80 percent, and the reflection of the sun off the water doubles it. Even just being on a sandy beach ups the UV quotient by 25 percent. How bad can it get? A skier dropping into one of Vail’s back bowls at 10,000 feet elevation at 1 o’clock in the afternoon will start burning in a matter of minutes — and must reapply sunscreen at least twice as often as at sea level to keep the sun’s harmful rays at bay.

Still, the greater cause for concern is the apparent ineffectiveness of sunscreens. According to a study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a consumer advocacy group, only 8 percent of all sunscreens on the market protect you from carcinogenic radiation. This is because there are two types of ultraviolet light and, as the EWG report points out, most sunscreens protect only against one: UVB rays. UVBs are the ones that trigger the five-alarm fires on your back when you fall asleep on your chaise longue — the radiation in the sunlight has literally cooked the surface skin cells, and in addition to the tenderized skin, the cells’ DNA has suffered damage.

While this is still potentially dangerous, it doesn’t cause the lethal kind of cancer that UVA rays do. UVAs penetrate deeper, damaging connective tissue (causing that saggy, leathery look favored by lifelong tanners) and skin cells that produce a pigment known as melanin. As you increase your sun exposure, those melanin-producing cells generate more pigment, and that’s how you tan — it’s part of the body’s attempt to protect the skin.

For five more ways to protect your skin, click here.

Unfortunately, a tan is a sign that you’ve damaged the melanin cells’ DNA. The vast majority of the time, your immune system recognizes the problem and issues a kill order for the mutated cells, but occasionally, a mutant slips past your defense system, and voilà: You have cancer. While most skin-cell mutations result in easy-to-treat growths known as basal-cell and squamous-cell skin cancer (the most common types of skin cancer, and rarely fatal), melanoma spreads quickly and is very often deadly.

Three decades ago — the last time the FDA set sunscreen standards — the focus was on UVB rays because they caused sunburns, which doctors believed caused skin cancer. While the FDA updates its standards (improved labels will likely take until 2012 to debut), the EWG has now come up with guidelines for finding a sunblock that will protect your skin from harm (see below).

In the meantime, it’s never too late to use the right kinds of sunscreen. “I compare it to smoking,” says Dr. Darrell S. Rigel, a professor of dermatology at New York University and former president of the American Academy of Dermatology. “The more you smoke, the worse off you are, but it always pays to stop. The same is true of sun exposure: Change your behavior and you can dramatically lower your risk.”

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Five Rules for Choosing Sunscreen

i.
There are three essential chemical agents your sunscreen must contain if it’s to block both UVA and UVB rays. Check the label and make sure the ingredients include zinc, titanium dioxide, or avobenzone ormeroxyl sx. Most major brands have some but not all of these. To find them, go to EWG.org. Two we recommend are Hara Bodycare and Thinksport. While they’re not widely distributed, you can order them easily on Amazon.com.

ii.
Pick sunscreens that are free of vitamin A (retinyl palmitate, on the label), which may raise the risk of tumors, and oxybenzone, a chemical linked to DNA damage.

iii.
Avoid sprays and powders. Instead, favor creams that are water-resistant.

iv.
Get the right amount of vitamin D by putting on sunscreen right before you go outside. It takes 15 minutes for the sunscreen to become active — exactly the amount of time you need to absorb the vitamin D your body craves.

v.
Use SPF 30 or higher, and make sure you reapply sunscreen every two hours if you’re just lying around — and if you’re sweating heavily or swimming, be sure to slather it on every 40 minutes.

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This article first appeared in the September 2010 issue of Men’s Journal.

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