Survey shows that younger Americans are skeptical about the safety of sunscreen. Misinformation on social media doesn’t help.
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Tiktok is filled with videos of influencers offering health and skin care advice. But when it comes to sunscreen, there’s also a lot of misinformation out there – false claims that sunscreen is toxic and causes more sun damage than it prevents.
Dr. Heather Rogers, a dermatologist in Seattle, said such videos are all too common on social media and can be dangerous. She said some of the messages were simply false.
“Some famous people, including reality TV star Kristin Cavallari, have talked about how they don’t wear sunscreen, how wearing it is unnatural and how sunscreen can cause cancer. It’s not based on fact and it’s not accurate information,” Rogers said.
But it appears to be having an impact. Recent surveys have found that a significant number of young Americans doubt the safety of sunscreen and are generally misinformed about sun protection.
A survey by Orlando Health Cancer Institute found that one in seven U.S. adults under the age of 35 believes using sunscreen every day is more dangerous than direct sun exposure.
That’s troubling because melanoma is one of the most common cancers among young people, said Dr. Rajesh Nair, a surgical oncologist at the institute who helped draft the survey.
“We are seeing more and more young and middle-aged people not only suffering from skin cancer, but also advanced skin cancer,” Nair said.
Conversations with his young patients revealed that many of them relied almost exclusively on social media as a source of health information, which prompted him to conduct the survey.
His findings are consistent with another survey from the American Academy of Dermatology, which found that many members of Generation Z don’t understand the risks of sunburn and the basics of sun protection.
For example, 37% of Gen Z respondents said they only use sunscreen when others bother them, and 30% mistakenly believe that tanning is safe as long as they don’t burn.
Dermatologist Heather Rogers says there is no safe way to tan.
“After DNA damage, your body tans,” she explains. When you are exposed to UV rays from the sun or tanning bed, your skin absorbs the light, causing mutations in your DNA.
“Your DNA says, oh shit, I’m hurt. Is there anything I can do? It will spit out any pigment it contains. So when you tan, you’ve gone through a DNA mutation,” Rogers said.
It is these mutations that can lead to skin cancer and premature aging.
Rogers said some of the hesitation about using sunscreen stems from research finding that chemical sunscreens are absorbed into the blood at higher levels than previously thought, which should be studied further. Despite these unknowns, she said, “the risks of chemical sunscreens have not been proven in humans. I think it’s important to lead on this”.
“Any sunscreen is better than no sunscreen,” Rogers stressed.
But if you’re concerned about chemical sunscreens, both Nair and Rogers recommend using mineral sunscreens like zinc oxide, which acts as a physical barrier to UV rays and is less likely to enter the bloodstream.
But be sure to wear sunscreen, Nair says, because the evidence for its benefits is strong and compelling. “We know that using sunscreen can reduce the risk of skin cancer by 40 to 50 percent,” he said.
If health concerns don’t prompt you to slather on sunscreen, do so for vanity’s sake, Nair says. After all, sun exposure is the most common cause of wrinkles, dark spots, and other signs of premature aging.
This story was edited by Jane Greenhalgh
