Almost every spring and summer season, with or without evidence, or a biased interpretation, the media will report how terrible sunscreen ingredients are. This year, zinc oxide has become the target of news, and the headline of the news is expected, such as “sun protection.” The ingredients are not harmful.” “Sunscreen ingredients increase the risk of cancer.” The news concluded that zinc oxide will produce free radicals on the skin and eventually lead to death, but is the media’s conclusion really evidence?
Although the news in the media is shocking, we must emphasize that sunscreen products containing zinc oxide are not harmful to health. It is an excellent sunscreen ingredient. The media reports have no evidence to support. Simply put, the media overreacts. The research cited by his door was not published in scientific journals at all, which means that the research has not been reviewed by other scientists, and has not been reconfirmed by other researchers, and the scientist who led the research said that They are not sure whether zinc oxide will produce free radicals. It is only conjectured that zinc oxide “may” generate free radicals when exposed to sunlight.
What the original research report says:
The distorting ability of the media is really amazing. The headline of the news is so affirmative. In fact, this study has no conclusions. We can see the clues from the words written by the researchers (but they have been deliberately ignored by the media).
Dr. Ma Yingfa said that our research on the effects of zinc oxide on cells is still in its infancy, so it is not necessary to make a conclusion based on the results of this study. This preliminary study needs further confirmation.
As for the total amount of free radicals produced by sunscreen exposure in the sun, we must remember that walking, breathing, and sun exposure will cause the body and skin to contact a large number of free radicals. Free radicals are not completely bad. We need free radicals. Existence can survive in order to fight microbial infections and perform important physiological functions. No one will be willing or able to interrupt the production of free radicals. However, if we do not take any measures for the damage caused by free radicals, the accumulated damage will be considerable. This is the bad side of free radicals.
More importantly, the method of this study is to soak human lung cells in zinc oxide and then irradiate them with UVA for 3 to 12 hours. The zinc oxide content in sunscreen products is quite low, and it is applied to the skin, sunlight. The UV rays in the UVA, UVB and UVC are similar, and the analogy between them is really nondescript. Dr. Ma said, “We do not recommend stopping the use of sunscreen. The only conclusion of this study is that it should not be soaked in zinc oxide. Sun for 3 to 12 hours.
Interestingly, some studies have found that zinc nanoparticles of zinc oxide can kill cancer cells in humans and mice. Of course, the results of such research can not use sunscreen products containing zinc oxide with analog skin. We cite this example to make Those who were scared by these media reports were relieved.
Conclusion
We know that exposure to sunlight increases the chance of skin cancer (sunburn increases the risk of melanoma, it is the most deadly skin cancer) and causes premature aging, so be sure to use sunscreen products with a sun protection factor above SPF15 per day, including zinc oxide. The sunscreen products with titanium dioxide are great, don’t be scared by the sensational news headlines.