by Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life

The sunscreen manufacturers continue to capitalise on the fear that people believe sunshine causes cancer.

I am not against sun screens as they are absolutely essential for most people if they only have irregular exposure to the sun. It is certainly not healthy to get burnt.

However, ensure that when you use a sunscreen that you don’t use one so powerful that the beneficial rays of the sun are totally blocked. Also, make sure that this same principle is applied to your children so they can tan without getting burnt.

Now…this is what I wanted to tell you…

Only use sun screens that block the suns rays by applying a barrier on the top of the skin. In other words sun screens that contain zinc or titanium oxide. These sun screens put a thin white layer of the oxide over your skin. It is not all that obvious until you go to wash it off. That is generally when you notice the white film.

The majority of the sun screens on the market today are responding to consumer demand to ensure that the sunscreen feels good. So, the manufacturers have reverted to chemical sun blockers that get absorbed by the skin and are not sticky or leave a residue like the ones containing zinc or titanium.

These chemical sun blockers are smooth and feel good on the skin so they are now used extensively not only in sun screens but also in face creams and make up with an SPF factor.

But, the question is, are they harmful?

Well, the short answer is…no one knows. Some of them are certainly toxic if ingested so there is a real possibility that they may be harmful over the long term. It is important to consider that when a chemical is infused into your skin as these are, then a certain amount of the chemical finds its way into the blood stream. I am sure a little bit occasionally will do little harm, but what about the continual use of it over decades? Some scientists believe that they could trigger off cancer. I tend to take the same view.

So, the bottom line in my humble opinion is to avoid sun screens that do not use either zinc or titanium sun blocks. It is just not worth the risk.

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