Here comes the sun

Is Your Sunscreen More Harmful Than Being in the Sun?

...an ingredient in most sunscreens — retinyl palmitate – actually causes cancer.


In one FDA study on animals, dismissed by a dermatologist consultant to sunscreen companies as “very premature to even cast doubt about the safety of this chemical,” retinyl palmitate accelerated tumors and lesions in the sun by 21 percent! (Similar studies on humans not animals would be “unethical” say scientists)


And there are other sunscreen doubts. Many people don’t apply the needed amount of sunscreen to protect themselves from UVA and UVB sunrays because the products are expensive (and no one wants to be a goo monster). But when they do, they still may not be safe since ingredients like oxybenzone — which is an endocrine-disrupter, as are most fragrances — and titanium dioxide are now thought to penetrate the skin and enter the bloodstream. THAT wasn’t in the brochure.


Once upon a time, before links between skin cancer and sun bathing were confirmed, people didn’t use sunscreen. They used baby oil and iodine to enhance the sun’s effect, literally sautéed themselves in the sun and using reflectors. (They were also smoking Tareytons or Kents which also wasn’t seen as self-destructive.) Having the best suntan in the room was like being the thinnest person in the room decades later: a badge of social status and sex appeal. Who knew that wrinkles would develop? Who believed they would live past 30?


Then the pendulum swung and the sun was as bad as, well, cigarettes. The era of sunscreens and long sleeves began and spray-on tans, often carrot-orange, were the rage, with Hollywood leading the way.

Smokes, sun and beer.  Years ago they didn't add all the "new" items into lotions, cigs or liquor.  Just as good back then - maybe even better since chemicals really don't taste too good.

Hey if butter worked for Kramer - Land O'Lakes here I come.