Following my post on Cancer Alert: Protect Your Skin this Summer, I have been researching on commercial sunscreens and organic sunscreens.

To my utmost dismay, some reputable “organic” companies claimed to make “organic sunscreen” that is safe and free of dangerous chemicals. How deceiving their claims are! When you scrutinize their ingredient lists, you will notice Titanium Oxide as part of the list.

Now, we know how dangerous Titanium Oxide are, yet this ingredient is prevalent in many commercialize sunscreen products. If you missed my post on that, Titanium Oxide is a photo-activator that can react with other sunscreen chemicals and promote their free radical production or their cancer forming abilities. Recent studies have shown that Titanium damages the cells’ DNA and it has been listed as a potential carcinogen.

As I move along, I managed to find a couple of trustworthy companies that truly live to their claims of making safe sunscreen. Rather than using Titanium Oxide, these companies use Zinc Oxide.

Since both of these ingredients are inorganic, what makes Zinc Oxide safer than Titanium Oxide?

Zinc oxide has been used as the natural blocking agent as it is the only ingredient synthetic chemical or natural to effectively provide comprehensive protection against UVB and both short and long UVA radiation.

Zinc oxide is the closest thing to a total sunblock on the market today. It uniformly covers from 290 to 380 nm, thus protecting against UVB and most of the UVA spectrum. No other sunscreen ingredient provides broader protection.

And unlike many chemical sunscreen agents, zinc oxide is never irritating. In fact, it is recognized by the Food and Drug Administration as a Category I skin protectant, meaning that it is safe for compromised or environmentally challenged skin.

Zinc oxide has over a 300-year history of safety, with no known adverse reactions (which is why it is often used to treat babies). Now, in its microfine form, it is ideal for use in sunscreens and daily moisturizers.

References:

New and Improved Daily Photoprotection by Surgery.org