Below is the ingredient list of a product I saw advertised this afternoon, designed for women, to put on their skin to protect them from sun exposure:
Active Ingredients: Octisalate (5.0%), Avobenzone (3.0%), Homosalate, Octocrylene (2.6%)
Inactive Ingredients: Water, Glycerin, Polyethylene, Dimethicone, Niacinamide, Pentylene Glycol, Panthenol, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Isohexadecane, Polysorbate 60, Dimethiconol, PEG 4 Laurate, PEG 4 Dilaurate, Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate, PEG 4, Stearic Acid, Cetearyl Glucoside, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate (Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolyme), Cetearyl Alcohol, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Benzyl Alcohol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Behenyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Ethylparaben, Propylparaben, Disodium EDTA, PEG 100 Stearate, Fragrance (Parfum)
There is no question that excessive sun exposure, depending on the person’s skin tone, can be problematic.
Kinda like anything we over-expose ourselves to.
But look at the chemicals in the product above, and tell me you know what each one of them is, and how applying it to your skin will be beneficial, and absorption of the chemicals into the body will be non-toxic.
Some of the group are recognizable, B vitamins, C and E. Others are complete unknowns to me, and others are on the “questionable” list in my book of food safety (which includes a cosmetics section).
The sun produces vitamin D.
Moderate exposure is hugely helpful, and this is a fact that cannot be disputed.
Unless someone wants to dispute the eons worth of life-giving magic that the sun provides.
If one is outside constantly, of course precautions need to be taken.
But to block the UV spectrum, and any/all of the other of the sun’s wide spectrum, considering that without it we’d all be dead…
Just seems a little “off” to me.
Especially using all those chemicals to attempt to accomplish this goal.
We KNOW the sun, respecting the sun and our exposure to it, is healthful. The sunblock companies may desperately like you to believe otherwise, but gosh darn it, the sun provides life, and I would love to debate these issues with the company heads at any time…kinda an easy win.
Or at least ask them if the chemicals they use in their products are life-enhancing…or life-degrading.
Wanna bet the answer is the latter?
So I’d prefer covering up with loose light-colored clothing, after obtaining my 20 to 30 minutes of nakedness in the sun.
Just another in a long list of what to me is “common sense.”