It now appears that although sunscreen has been touted as a great way to protect people from skin cancer, an FDA study has now shown that they may actually be a cause of cancer. Approximately half of the 500 most popular sunscreen products are alleged to accelerate the rate and growth of skin cancer due to the vitamin A content.

Although the products do prevent sunburn, they do not stop the UV radiation from the sun from causing tumors and lesions on your skin.  This study was performed by researchers from the Environmental Working Group.  In fact, the study says that only 39 of the 500 products investigated were deemed ‘safe and effective’.

In addition, there were problems found with the sun protection factor (SPF) ratings as well.  It was found that one of the chemicals, oxybenzone, is known to disrupt hormone function.  The SPF figures are actually inflated, and do not protect skin from the sun as well as would be expected.  There was also a decided lack of regulations and oversight by the FDA over the entire sunscreen industry.

But the alarming part of these findings is that EWG found that FDA knew about this, and also the cancer-causing properties of vitamin A in sunscreen products for at least 10 years.  They found a decade-old study that the FDA had buried which demonstrated that tumors and lesions grew up to 21% more rapidly in lab animals coated with vitamin-A laced cream than animals treated with vitamin-free cream.

So, once again, we have an (alleged) regulatory agency covering up for an industry.  If this were just an isolated case, it would be one thing.  But when these regulators continue to ‘drop the ball’ in so many different areas, it starts to appear that these are not just oversights or mistakes.  Especially when every ‘mistake’ adds many millions and billions in revenue to the coffers of these Big Pharma corporations.  If these were honest ‘mistakes’, then why does every ‘mistake’ lead to an expediency for Big Pharma corporations, and more pain for the end user of these products? After a while, it would seem that people would wake up and realize that the highest priority for the corporation is Shareholder Wealth (i.e., profits), and that every other consideration is a distant second in importance.

It’s nothing personal–it’s just business to them, regardless of the personal impact that may negatively affect individuals.  To them, your personal pain, increased disease rate, the damage done to you, etc., is just a ‘cost of doing business’, a decision based on the risk-benefit ratio.  If it’s cheaper for them to screw you over and deal with it later in a lawsuit rather than remove a bad product from the market, they will do it.  And they keep doing it.  People would  be well-advised to remember these things before they jump on the ‘corporate  bandwagon’ when they are bombarded with pronouncements from these companies, as well as the regulatory agencies that work along with them.