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calgarymark
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Posted - 01/08/2019 : 02:09:00 AM
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This just appeared in the UK newspaper Guardian's weekly Flyer (travel) newsletter:
"Rethink your sunscreen (Photo in the original) "While sunscreens are crucial for UV protection, recent research indicates that once certain chemical ingredients, particularly oxybenzone and octinoxate, enter the water, they become harmful to humans and nature, and have been implicated in coral reef bleaching.
"In a world first, last May (2018?) Hawaii passed legislation that will ban the sale and distribution of any non-prescription sunscreen containing these chemicals (found in 78% of the most popular brands) from 2021. The Caribbean island of Bonaire followed in the same month. The most comprehensive ban so far is in the small Pacific island nation of Palau, which is to ban the buying, selling, importing or manufacturing of sunscreen and skincare products that contain these chemicals and eight additional ones, from 2020.
"The trend will continue in 2019. More than 30 countries and 19 US states are currently discussing the issue or have bills progressing. Expect more consumer pressure to make manufacturers review and improve their products, and provide clearer labelling.
"Dr Catherine Wilson, freelance writer specialising in sustainability, tourism and technology"
I am certainly not qualified to comment on this article, I offer it only as yet another piece of possibly useful information.
CalgaryMark Growing old is mandatory, Growing up is optional. Laughing at yourself is therapeutic.
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Country: Canada
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NaturistDoc
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Posted - 01/14/2019 : 1:51:57 PM
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As a physician-scientist (albeit a retired one), I try to keep a skeptical but open mind about health issues. For example, I support the de-criminalization of marijuana, but, pending the arrival of good data, I am not yet persuaded that cannabis has the broad health benefits claimed by its proponents. (Note: Please spare us the anecdotal stories of how cannabis or CBD cured your dandruff or whatever. I don't doubt the stories, but they're not data. And this post isn't really about cannabis anyway.) I have advocated the use of sunscreens and the development of better sunscreens in this forum for many years. However ... I am always willing to listen to other points of view. Richard Weller is a contrarian dermatologist with some very interesting ideas. I'm not saying he's right or wrong, but I'm looking forward to his forthcoming peer-reviewed publication. As always, my motto remains "Moderation in all things".
www.outsideonline.com/2380751/sunscreen-sun-exposure-skin-cancer-science?fbclid=IwAR2qMWheYIr-Z_1ckIutvW80edIdN4AJmnfcu5mTioxPoHLmSRvnyj9HIUQ
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Country: USA
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Bill Bowser
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Posted - 01/14/2019 : 10:54:40 PM
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You just beat me to this. I logged on to post the same link. I, and probably many others here, would be interested in hearing your comments Naturistdoc.
Bill Bowser - Cincinnati Not lewd, not crude, just nude.
Nudists are everywhere, but they're hard to identify with their clothes on.
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Country: USA
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Bill Bowser
Forum Member
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NaturistDoc
Forum Member
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Posted - 03/09/2019 : 10:11:06 PM
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Neither a PubMed search nor a look at Dr. Weller's website indicated that he's published his study yet. I'll check periodically and report his results when they're avaialble.
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Bill Bowser
Forum Member
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NaturistDoc
Forum Member
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Posted - 05/18/2019 : 3:53:43 PM
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Since the day I started this thread many years ago, I have never bothered to conceal my annoyance both with the foot-draggers at the FDA and the well-intentioned but misinformed nincompoops at the Environmental Working Group. The FDA, after an agonizingly slow process, grudgingly allowed "Anthelios", a low-SPF formulation containing Mexoryl (which has been sold in Europe and elsewhere for many years) onto the US market. It was a baby step in the right direction, but higher-SPF versions are still unavailable here. In the meantime, the EWG, reacting to in vitro studies of questionable relevance to the real world, decided that ALL chemical sunscreens were the work of the devil and should be avoided in favor of 'barrier' sunscreens containing zinc oxide or titanium oxide. Trouble is, barrier sunscreens range from merely unpleasant to downright disgusting in actual use. What's worse, Consumer Reports, whose opinions I value far more than the EWG's, found that barrier sunscreens were consistently less effective than chemical sunscreens.
Now the State of Hawaii, again relying on rather meager and questionably relevant research suggesting toxicity to corals, is banning the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and/or octinoxate, which means most of the brands currently sold in the US. Related compounds such as avobenzone, octocrylene, and octosalate are still deemed "reef-friendly". Somewhat to my relief, my go-to sunscreen, a Canadian product called "Ombrelle", contains neither of the banned ingredients, nor is it one of the gooey and ineffective barrier types. Unfortunately it's not approved for sale in the US.
(A political aside: The world's coral reefs are indeed in trouble, due mainly to getting cooked by rising sea temperatures and poisoned by agricultural and industrial runoff. Focusing on the supposed risks posed by sunscreens while ignoring the bigger problems strikes me as a classic example of "re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic".)
The government of Sweden - home to a lot of very sun-sensitive people - has published a monograph on the science, such as it is, of the environmental toxicity of sunscreens. They take pains to point out the obvious: "There are concerns that experiments undertaken to date have been largely ex-situ, and mainly at subcellular, cellular and organism level, with very few studies of the wider impacts of sunscreens and their UV filters. There is a lack of firm evidence of widespread negative impacts at reef community and/or ecosystem level. The evidence available may not properly reflect conditions on the reef, where pollutants may rapidly disperse and be diluted. Concentrations of UV filters used in experimental work have generally been higher than those likely to be encountered in the reef environment, although no study has assessed the levels of these chemicals in the tissues of long-lived species."
https://www.icriforum.org/sites/default/files/ICRI_Sunscreen_0.pdf
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Country: USA
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calgarymark
Forum Member
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calgarymark
Forum Member
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Posted - 05/27/2019 : 1:35:59 PM
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Further to the above, I checked Amazon.ca - there is a hardcover edition of the book mentioned in the review/news article. It would have to be imported from the UK and is priced at ~CAD$63 (US$47.00) The book addresses many more issues than Vitamin D (according to the summary in the Amazon write-up).
CalgaryMark Growing old is mandatory, Growing up is optional. Laughing at yourself is therapeutic.
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Country: Canada
| Posts: 184 |
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NaturistDoc
Forum Member
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Posted - 06/01/2019 : 03:04:16 AM
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Update: As of June 1, Dr. Richard Weller has still not published "his largest study yet" mentioned in the article cited in my post of 1/14/2019. However, I have other things to report.
First, contrary to the Outside article and Dr. Weller's TED talk, Dr. Weller's own published research demonstrated no significant effect, beneficial or otherwise, of UV-A exposure on blood pressure.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5959980/
The lack of persuasive evidence has not stopped Dr. Weller from forming a start-up company called RelaxSol which intends to market "Dr. Weller's Sunwell Sunscreen". (Their slogan: "Safely draw the goodness from the sun.") It will supposedly be available in the UK any day now. Unfortunately, the website does not offer a list of ingredients.
www.drwellerssunwell.com
To be fair ... Dr. Weller has a somewhat plausible rationale for his notion that sun exposure might lower blood pressure. Exposure of skin to UV-A radiation DOES seem to cause a transient increase in circulating nitric oxide, a substance known to dilate blood vessels. But nitric oxide has an extraordinarily short half-life - on the order of milliseconds - in the bloodstream, and as noted above, no significant changes in blood pressure were found. Who knows? Maybe he's right, and 'Dr. Weller's Sunwell' will be the greatest sunscreen ever. But nothing I've seen so far gives me the slightest reason to believe so.
"In God we trust. All others must bring data." -W. Edwards Deming
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Country: USA
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Bill Bowser
Forum Member
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Posted - 01/21/2020 : 8:58:06 PM
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An article in the UK Daily Mail describes a study which found that sunscreens leach up to 360 times more toxic chemicals into the blood than the FDA allows, raising risks for liver and kidney failure. The effects of these chemicals is probably not as alarming as the news media would have you believe, but it is something to think about.
The article is here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7911979/Sunscreen-chemicals-concentrations-blood-360-TIMES-higher-FDA-threshold.html
Bill Bowser - Cincinnati Not lewd, not crude, just nude.
Nudists are everywhere, but they're hard to identify with their clothes on.
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Country: USA
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calgarymark
Forum Member
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Posted - 01/22/2020 : 8:22:01 PM
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I'm suspicious of anything in a UK tabloid newspaper (or e-edition), but at least they cite sources. NaturistDoc: Comments?
CalgaryMark Growing old is mandatory, Growing up is optional. Laughing at yourself is therapeutic.
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Country: Canada
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Bill Bowser
Forum Member
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Posted - 01/22/2020 : 8:37:10 PM
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Being skeptical of anything you read on the internet is wise, but some of it is worthwhile. Differentiating is difficult.
Bill Bowser - Cincinnati Not lewd, not crude, just nude.
Nudists are everywhere, but they're hard to identify with their clothes on.
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Country: USA
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NaturistDoc
Forum Member
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Posted - 01/23/2020 : 5:14:44 PM
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If you find it curious that the FDA recommends an identical limit of 0.5 ng/ml for half a dozen totally different chemicals, I do too. Clearly it isn't based on empirical data, and is most likely an example of the Precautionary Principle, which Wikipedia defines as "a strategy for approaching issues of potential harm **when extensive scientific knowledge on the matter is lacking**". There is ZERO evidence that exceeding the 0.5 ng/ml threshold for any of these sunscreens is harmful. The only one that concerns me is oxybenzone, which does appear to have MUCH higher systemic absorption than any of the others. Some (not all) manufacturers are replacing oxybenzone with the (presumably) safer avobenzone
Here is a somewhat better analysis of the JAMA study cited by the Daily Mail
https://www.medpagetoday.com/dermatology/generaldermatology/84459?xid=fb_o&trw=no&fbclid=IwAR1RvxBnbZDQ6pl9FdZbJvAuBZePLBYktQ1He9hAMMXabd6TH3RH0br3oYA
Now, do I believe that chemical sunscreens are 100% safe? No. (PABA definitely wasn't.) But neither do I think that blood levels exceeding some arbitrary recommendation are necessarily dangerous. Given the enormous number of people who have used these sunscreens for years if not decades, you'd think that if they caused serious harm, some evidence would have come to light by now. But i will happily welcome more research. Personally, I avoid products with oxybenzone. If you're really worried about the safety of these sunscreens, there are dozens of 'mineral sunscreens' available ... if you can stand them.
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Country: USA
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NaturistDoc
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