Sunscreen And Cancer: So, Tell Me Why I Should Ever Leave The House Again?

Sure, spraying some rancid-coconut-smelling chemicals all over your skin before you go out in the sunshine might prevent you from getting a sunburn and the attendant itchiness and peeling. But is it preventing you from getting cancer? A new study from the Environmental Working Group says no, and that those SPF numbers you use to deduce which sunscreen is right for you are pretty much useless. (To be fair, in a world where “Doppler 4000” exists, the idea of numbers being inflated for the sole purpose of marketing doesn’t really surprise.) And it might be even worse if your sunscreen has Vitamin A, which even though it supposedly decelerates the aging process might actually result in accelerating sunlight’s ability to cause cancerous tumors. So much for “antioxidants” being good for you, right?

The EWG is actually accusing the Food & Drug Administration of sitting on findings that linked Vitamin A and cancer from a 10-year-old study in which “tumors and lesions developed up to 21 percent faster in lab animals coated in a vitamin A-laced cream than animals treated with a vitamin-free cream.” The FDA is denying the study’s existence, although documents on its own website would seem to counteract that claim.

What’s a fair-skinned person to do? Well, we could import our sunscreens from Europe; the EWG claims the chemical blends that protect without harm are available over there. But that seems kind of expensive. I’m leaning toward “never leaving the house,” because if I’m going to get cancer, I may as well have it come from whatever carcinogens are already in my home. At the very least, this plan will save me money.