Can Sunscreen Products Cause Skin Cancer?

Sunscreen products are designed to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays, but many people believe that these products may actually be causing cancer. Sunscreen is made up of a variety of chemicals, which sometimes include some levels of benzene. This has caused safety concerns among those who use sunscreen on a regular basis – especially children. In this article, we will discuss if sunscreen products do actually cause cancer or is it just a myth.

Why Do You Need To Use Sunscreen In The First Place?

Sunscreen products are made to protect your skin from the harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun. UV Rays can lead to premature aging and other serious problems, such as cancer. It is important that you wear sunscreen whenever you go outside for a long time – even if it’s cloudy! Many people think that they don’t need sunscreen when it’s not sunny out but this is wrong because some percentage of the sun’s radiation enters through light cloud cover or high thin haze. This means wearing sunscreen daily will provide optimal protection against these dangerous rays.

What Are The Dangers Of Sun Exposure?

Too much exposure without any type of protection can cause various types of skin cancers including melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. It can also cause a sunburn, which is your skin’s reaction to being burned by the UV Rays – leading to itchiness and redness. Other problems include dryness, premature aging of the skin (wrinkles), age spots, cataracts and other eye issues such as macular degeneration.

What Are Some Of The Concerns People Have?

Many people have been concerned about whether sunscreen products could actually be causing cancer because they contain benzene chemicals. Benzene has been linked with various forms of cancer; however there are no studies that show how much exposure would need for serious health risks to occur. There are some people that claim that one chemical used in sunscreen “oxybenzone” may disrupt the body’s hormones, which can lead to certain types of cancer. However, the FDA says that there is no scientific data in this regard either way.

What Can You Do To Protect Yourself?

The most basic way to protect yourself is to stay indoors most of the time however this is not a practical solution as everyone has to go out for work, studies, shopping or any other thing. The other solution can be to use an umbrella whenever you head out on a sunny day. This can also be very effective but there is also a third option. The best protection against sunburns and skin damage caused by overexposure to UV Rays is wearing sunscreen products daily with an SPF (Sun Protection Factor) of at least 15 or higher – especially if you are going outside for a long period time. Most people don’t realize they need to wear sunscreen until after they get burned! This can be a very painful experience for a lot of people. It also helps protect your skin from wrinkles later on in life too. If you have young children make sure they stay protected as well because their skin is sensitive and absorbs more harmful rays.

Are There Any Studies Suggesting That Sunscreens Can Cause Cancer

Well, when it comes to high quality and high level research that can be labelled as authentic then no there is no strong study suggesting that sunscreen products may cause cancer. However there are certain substances used in the making of sunscreens that are making people think about safety concerns. One of those substances is benzene. We believe that with time we will be able to get some high quality research in the matter which will clear all the confusion about sunscreen products and these studies may also show that sunscreen companies need to change their entire way of manufacturing their sunscreen products.

The Verdict?

Well, with all the information mentioned above, we can’t clearly say if sunscreen causes cancer or not. But we can easily say that sunscreen is an important thing to have when you are heading out however it is also important to never overuse it as over exposure to sunscreen may be equally as dangerous as over exposure to the sun. Both might cause skin issues so it is better that you take necessary precautions.