EWG’s 6th annual Sunscreen Guide rates 257 brands and more than 1,800 products for sun protection.*  The highlights:

More recommended sunscreens, fewer with risky vitamin A additive

EWG recommends 1 in 4 of more than 800 beach and sport sunscreens, compared to 1 in 5 last year and 1 in 12 the year before.

The differences?

• At our readers’ request, we added more baby and kids’ sunscreens to our database.  As we analyzed their contents, we realized that more products made specifically for children use safe, effective ingredients, relative to sunscreens marketed for the general public.  Boosting the number of baby and kids’ products increased the number of items we can recommend for everyone.  BUT parents should use our database to check out individual products.

• One-fourth of the sunscreens we studied this year contain retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A, compared to a third last year.  Research by the federal Food and Drug Administration and National Toxicology Program suggests that this chemical may heighten skin cancer risk when used on sun-exposed skin. Until definitive research is available, EWG recommends that prudent consumers avoid vitamin A-laden sunscreens. We have pressed sunscreen makers to get it out of their products, with some success.

New FDA sunscreen rules leave safety gaps

On June 17, 2011, 34 years after launching its effort to regulate the safety and effectiveness of sunscreens, the U.S. Food and Drug issued legally binding rules governing how these products are marketed. On May 11, 2012, weeks before the rules were to go into effect, the FDA announced yet another delay, pushing the effective date back six months to mid-December 2012.  Most importantly, the rules will bar use of the term “broad spectrum” for products that do not meet a government test for protection against both UVA and UVB rays.

Even after the new rules are effective the most serious gaps in consumer safety will remain:

• Sunscreens with poor UVA protection remain legal. Half the sunscreens in our database will pass the FDA’s  “broad spectrum” test provide such weak UVA protection that they would not be sold in Europe. There, manufacturers voluntarily comply with a European Union recommendation that all sunscreens provide meaningful UVA protection in relation to SPF.
• Sunscreens can still hype super-high SPF (sunburn protection factor) ratings that prevent burns from UVB rays but leave users at risk for skin damage and aging caused by UVA rays. About 1 in 7 beach and sport sunscreens claim SPFs greater than 50+. The FDA has proposed barring SPF claims higher than 50 but has not issued regulations to make it mandatory.  Studies show that high-SPF users are exposed to as many or more ultraviolet rays as those who use lower-SPF products, probably because consumers get a false sense of security from those big numbers. They wait too long before reapplying sunscreen and stay out too long.
  
• Spray and powder sunscreens that may eventually damage lungs are still out there. The FDA is investigating their toxicity risks.

Baby and kids’ sunscreens – some good, some gimmicks

This year’s guide lists almost 180 baby and kids’ sunscreens, the most yet.  The results are mixed:

Good news:  Many brands formulate children’s sunscreens with safer, more effective ingredients than those in other products.  About 63 percent of kids’ sunscreens contain effective mineral ingredients that provide good UVA protection, compared to 40 percent of other sunscreens.

Though you still need to read labels and use EWG’s Sunscreen Guide, chances are you’ll get a better sunscreen if you buy one marketed for kids.

Compared to other sunscreens, those with the words “baby,” “children” or “kids” in the product name are less likely to contain:

• Fragrances, which are mixtures of chemicals some of which may cause allergies and other serious health problems. Some 72 percent of kids’ sunscreens are fragrance-free, versus 54 percent of other sunscreens.
• Oxybenzone, a hormone-disrupting chemical, is in 37 percent of kids’ sunscreens versus 56 percent of other sunscreens.

Not-so-good news: We uncovered 16 brands that list exactly the same ingredients in their children’s products as in their other products – down to the exact percentages of active ingredients. For these brands, including Banana Boat, Coppertone, Alba and ThinkBaby, the word “children” on the label may be just a marketing gimmick.