Green Screen

Disclaimer - I am not a scientist.  I am a researcher.  And all research is susceptible to errors.  If I have made a statement in error, leave a comment and cite a source and I will gladly correct myself.  I will not, however, debate.

If you've ever been both concerned about health and concerned about getting sunburns, you've discovered that there are pretty much no healthy sunscreens on the market.

The problem starts with the very nature of sunscreen.  To be effective, it has to cover your skin and not come off immediately.  So, sunscreens typically include "penetration enhancers" to help them absorb into the skin, but this also means that the other ingredients tend to penetrate into parts of the body (like the blood stream or breast milk) where they weren't meant to be. Methylisothiazolinone (say that five times fast) is an allergen that was banned in Europe because it's unsafe, yet it is still allowed, and frequently-used, in the US. Thanks, FDA. 
The most common sunscreens use chemical filters that imitate hormones.  In 2018, 65% of non-mineral sunscreens out there used oxybenzone, an estrogen that has anti-androgenic effects.  It can also affect birth weights and gestational periods.  The CDC has found oxybenzone in 96% of the population of the United States (though, to be fair, it is used in cosmetics as well).  In fact, most of the ingredients in sunscreen have not even been evaluated, thanks to being grandfathered in by the FDA in the 1970s.  In many cases, the FDA simply lets industries police themselves - a foolish stance.  In 2015, the Danish EPA found that 16 out of the 19 ingredients most commonly used in sunscreen have no information on their safety or possible carcinogenic effects.
That's right, carcinogenic.
Imagine putting something on that causes cancer in order to prevent cancer.  We may very well be doing just that.  If we don't have research on something, why are we smearing it on our skin?
Other ingredients can inhibit hormones.  Octinoxate, another common ingredient, lowers sperm counts, causes sperm quality to drop, and delays puberty.  In fact, several ingredients found in sunscreen have the same results.


It is also hard to find sunscreens that are environmentally-friendly. "Green" sunscreens are few and far-between.

Sunscreen use has been on the rise, meaning more of it is being washed off into waterways and oceans. But the chemicals found in sunscreens don't disappear once it washes off your skin.  A 2019 study found oxybenzone, octinoxate, and many other UV filters can be seen in almost every water source we have, and they aren't things treatment plants are designed to (or able to) filter.  Oxybenzone has been identified as a major coral reef bleaching agent.  Fish world-wide have been found with elevated levels of these chemicals inside of them, which means they are now a part of the food chain. No wonder 96% of the population has been exposed to oxybenzone.  Even organic sunscreens have negative impacts on the environment.

So what options are there that are environmentally friendly AND health-conscious?

Non-mineral sunscreens, which typically use either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, don't have as much impact on our health, particularly zinc oxide, which - although it is insoluble in water - is safe to eat.  Of course, safe for humans does not mean safe for everything.  Titanium dioxide, on the other hand, does not absorb into the skin, but can still be harmful.  It has not been studied well, but we do know that when inhaled, it is classified as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."  Titanium dioxide dust is common in its manufacturing process, and sunscreens use "nano-particles" of it, which are more dangerous.  All in all, it requires further study (something you'd think we'd do before making it ubiquitous).  And you have to be careful looking at the ingredients; titanium dioxide is usually used in tandem with oxybenzone and octinoxate, so simply seeing it as an ingredient doesn't make it safe.


But there *are* options out there, things that we are just now starting to realize are viable alternatives.
Nature makes sunscreen.

Hippos have been known to "sweat blood," while in reality they secrete two compounds, hipposudoric acid and norhipposudoric acid which act as sunscreen and antimicrobial agent for the hippo.  They're just red and orange, making it look like the hippo is reenacting the Passion of Christ.  This natural sunscreen, though unstable, has been successfully synthesized in labs... back in 2006.  But, in my research, I have been unable to find any commercially-available sunscreen that uses either of those chemicals.

Hippos aren't the only ones.  Mushroom Coral in the Great Barrier Reef makes its own sunscreen as well.  In 2011, King's College in London found that certain algae make a chemical that the coral turns into sunscreen, based on observations made by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).  AIMS has worked for years researching this, and got together with The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO - a scientific and independent agent of the Australian government) to develop sunscreen using this chemical.  However, as far as I can tell it is only available in Australia.

Many beetles produce a special wax that protect them from sun and heat, particularly Darkling Beetles, which live in the Namibian Desert, but it is found in North American beetles as well.  However, again, we don't seem to have any of this on the market.

Plants are always exposed to sunlight and yet show very little damage from it.  In fact, plants are highly resilient to any form of radiation.  How is this?  They have photoreceptors called UVR8 that activate when there is too much sunlight and cause the plant to produce enzymes - enzymes which not only protect it from UV-B damage, but also repair damage.  This is found in almost every plant, and yet we are only discovering all this since the turn of the century.  I'm sure that with some research, we can isolate these enzymes and learn to emulate them, synthesize them, produce them.

Finally, fish, birds, reptiles, and other animals produce a substance known as gadusol which protects them from sunburn - usually.  Gadusol can be synthesized, and in fact Gadusol Labs is a start-up company doing just that.  It is dedicated to making sunscreens that are environmentally-friendly, sustainable, and non-hazardous using gadusol.  They've only been around for a couple of years, though.

So there is hope.  My only question is, why has it taken us THIS long to realize that nature has better solutions for us?