Not Another Dermatologist

As a physician, I cannot imagine the difficulties that our colleagues are facing.
These people are the pride of our profession.

I stand by you. I wish there were more that I could do.

Awwal chi Bonjour. Chtaana.

Tene chi: do sunscreens cause cancer?

There are a bunch of videos circulating online saying that sunscreens can cause cancer.

So while keeping an open mind, I looked up the studies to check if that was true.
The answer is: there are NO studies proving that sunscreens cause cancer in humans. There are a bunch of studies that show that sunscreens actually prevent skin cancer.

Most of the articles I got about sunscreens having a bad effect on humans had to do with the following chemicals: Oxybenzone (benzophenone-3), octinoxate (OMC) and retinyl palmitate.

Oxybenzone (benzophenone-3) and octinoxate (OMC) have an endocrine-disrupting potential ( they can affect your hormones) and can be absorbed by your body when you apply them on your whole skin for several days in a row. Still, studies were not able to see an effect of these chemicals on human health. They have been banned from sunscreens because of their effects on coral reefs. Most sunscreens are now free of these products.

Retinyl palmitate in sunscreens has been said to cause skin cancer when exposed to UV. There are plenty of studies showing that it is safe.

If you are still worried about sunscreens causing cancer, please worry about the sun and cancer. We know for a fact that sunburns increase your risk of skin cancer.

Share, comment, like and Be safe!

References:

J Clin Oncol 29:257-263. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2010.28.7078

British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 161, Issue s3, 1 November 2009, Pages 78–84, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2009.09453.x

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0781.2011.00557.x

Int J Dermatol. 2020 Sep; 59(9): 1033–1042. Published online 2020 Feb 28. doi: 10.1111/ijd.14824

Cosmetics 2019, 6(3), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/cosmetics6030042

Ok so I know that a lot of you are not going to like this, but the UVA light that is emitted by the Gel curing lamps is a carcinogen.

There have been several reports of skin cancer affecting the hands in patients who have used this machine for a while.

A recent study published in nature (which is like Vogue but for scientists) showed that this light can cause direct damage to the cells. You should also know that UVA can cause damage to your eyes so make sure not to look at it and to protect yourself.

While we don’t have large scale studies to tell you exactly what is the percentage of people using this machine who will go along to develop skin cancer, we can tell you that this is easy to prevent: wear sunscreen, or better yet, don’t use it.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-35876-8