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Consumer Safety: Sunscreen Vitamin A Ingredient Linked to Possible Skin Photocarcinogen

by on July 1, 2011 - 1 Comment
Section: Consumer Safety, The Wire

This graphic presents skin tumor onset data for female and male mice exposed to the amount of UV light equivalent to 30 percent of the UV dose that causes sunburn in people (UV intensity of 6.75 CIE/cm2). The bottom axis, from 0 to 40, indicates weeks of retinyl palmitate + light treatment. At the beginning of the study animals were 8 weeks old. The combination of retinyl palmitate and UV exposure caused earlier onset of skin tumors. Similarly, earlier tumor onset was observed in animals exposed to twice higher intensity of UV light (13.7 CIE/cm2, equivalent to 60 percent of the amount of UV that causes sunburn). Throughout the treatment, the mice received skin applications of 0.1 percent or 0.5 percent retinyl palmitate mixed in a control skin cream containing a solvent diisopropyl adipate at 15 percent every weekday. Animals were also exposed to UV light on weekdays (NTP 2010).

The federal Food and Drug Administration’s new sunscreen rules seem likely to do away with the worst hype in ads and on labels. The agency has barred the claims “waterproof,” “sweatproof” and “sunblock,” boasts that were never achievable. The FDA has, for the first time, set a minimum performance standard for sunscreens that use the term “broad spectrum” to denote that they provide a measure of protection from ultraviolet-A rays.