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What sunscreens should you buy? There are some good ones out there, EWG found. And when in doubt, double up with a separate sunscreen, too. If you really like those products, see below. Plus, most women apply these just once a day, and any protection they do offer will last only a few hours. Moisturizers, Lip Balms, and Makeup with SPFįewer than 10 percent of these meet EWG's criteria for providing UVA and UVB protection, and for that matter, most products on the market can't claim "broad-spectrum" protection as defined by the FDA. Unless you're on a long hike in the wilderness, bugs are mostly pesky at dawn and dusk, not during the heat of the day when UV rays are strongest.Ħ. Beyond that, you don't need them, says EWG. Bug repellents can contain effective but potentially irritating chemicals that you need only apply once a day, whereas sunscreen should be reapplied every two hours. They're unnecessary and potentially harmful. The FDA has said that it won't allow powder- or towelette-based sunscreen products to be sold after the end of 2013. In fact, this is the last summer you'll see either product on store shelves.
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The same goes with powders and towelettes. "When you're spraying on sunscreen, it's hard to tell if you're getting the amount of coverage you need," Leiba says. Sunscreens in Powder, Spray-on, or Towelette Form It can also be listed as benzophenone or benzophenone-3.Ĥ. More than half the products EWG analyzed contained oxybenzone, and government studies have detected the ingredient inside the systems of 96 percent of Americans. Once inside your body, some experts suspect it mimics the hormone estrogen. The problem with it, says Leiba, is that it penetrates the skin very easily and gets absorbed into your bloodstream. Oxybenzone is a chemical sunscreen agent that gets absorbed by your skin. The FDA has proposed rules that would prohibit companies from advertising SPFs higher than 50, which they call "inherently misleading," but those rules have never gone into effect. Thus, you stay outside longer and absorb too much skin-damaging UVA. "Because they protect you longer from UVB rays, you may not get burned, which you associate with time to go inside," she adds. High-SPF products also lull you into a false sense of security, as we reported in Learn The New Sunscreen Lingo. SPF is a measure of protection against sunburn-causing UVB rays only, not of cauncer-causing UVA rays, and UVA protection in these products is poor, according to EWG's analysis, says Leiba.
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Please limit sun exposure while using this product and for a week afterward." Instead, if you're using a retinol skin cream, apply it at night, and use a retinol-free sunscreen in the a.m. It's become such a risky ingredient that the Canadian government is considering requiring warning labels on vitamin A–containing products that say the ingredient "may increase your skin's sensitivity to the sun and particularly the possibility of sunburn. "That's concerning in light of the fact that melanoma rates have risen 2% each year over the past decade," says Leiba. Yet it's commonly added to sunscreens and lotions owing to its antiaging effects. Retinol, or vitamin A, can increase the risk of tumors on sun-exposed skin, according to a number of government tests.
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