[...] with bottles and tubes covered with claims, "it's really hard to make sense of what all the terminology means," says Roopal V. Kundu, M.D., an associate professor of dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who researches how people buy and use sunscreen.
Here, then, is the help you need: seven common terms and what they actually mean—and don't. The federal government requires sunscreen claims to be "truthful and not misleading." But only three of the main claims consumers see—"SPF," "broad-spectrum," and "water-resistant"—are strictly regulated by the [U.S.] government and therefore have agreed-upon definitions.
(source)
The article goes on to explain those terms as well as "sport," "dermatologist recommended," "natural," "mineral" and "reef safe."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kazzie on Tuesday May 15 2018, @03:56PM
These blasted time-travelling editors!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Tuesday May 15 2018, @04:26PM (12 children)
I believe in a previous article here on SN the toxicity of sunscreen was discussed. I remember the major take away was baby sunscreen avoids the problematic chemicals. Additionally, it is easier to find in big box stores than other sunscreens marketed at avoiding chemicals.
What a great comment! A vague memory to get some conversation started. Your welcome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @07:08PM (11 children)
Or just slowly build up a tan. Whenever I successfully do that there is no sunburn for the year.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday May 15 2018, @07:52PM
That doesn't work for people that cannot tan. I'm apparently so white, that I'm practically fluorescent. The sun has *never* given me a tan. Only sunburns.
I was literally designed for cave dwelling, and only emerging at night to feed :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:13PM (5 children)
Your tan may kill you, even if you don't burn.
https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/melanoma/ [cancercouncil.com.au]
https://www.melanoma.org.au/understanding-melanoma/melanoma-facts-and-statistics/ [melanoma.org.au]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:33PM (4 children)
Literally anything that increases the rate of cell division increases the rate of cancer.
https://www.melanoma.org.au/understanding-melanoma/melanoma-facts-and-statistics/ [melanoma.org.au]
Interesting, so as more people wear sunscreen and avoid tans there is more melanoma:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip-Slop-Slap [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:48PM (3 children)
children and teens get exposed, then develop cancer years, or (more often) decades later, so any drop from campaigns in the last twenty years may not show for another twenty.
As well, there may be diagnostic drift. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/20/deadly-melanoma-not-due-vitamin-d-deficiency.aspx [mercola.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:53PM (2 children)
So there is no evidence that sunscreen is preventing melanoma, only wild speculation. Further, melanoma rates keep increasing worldwide along with sunscreen use but no one has bothered to figure out whether it is due to sunscreen or not:
http://www.jabfm.org/content/24/6/735.full [jabfm.org]
So, as usual, the understanding is rudimentary but these health experts are advocating people buy some chemical to put on/in their body anyway.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 15 2018, @09:18PM (1 child)
Actually, they recommend staying out of the sun and covering up in high UV periods, AND wearing suncream.
They realise most people just won't stay under cover, so hats, long sleeves and suncream are the 'next best' options.
Besides, everyone knows someone who has tanned all their life and not died of cancer, so it won't get you either, right?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @09:28PM
Whatever, its pretty obvious that trying to avoid all sun exposure leaves you vulnerable to tiny bursts of it and will increase any UV induced cancer. Also there is whatever vitamin D effect... These are the same organizations who triggered an obesity epidemic by recommending a high carb diet for decades right?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:55PM (3 children)
So an actual black person told me. Whenever a white person assumed she didn't need sunscreen she got really pissed.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @09:11PM (1 child)
Sounds like black people who wear sunscreen get sunburned. My friend from zimbabwe said noone has it happen over there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 16 2018, @09:17AM
Lighter skinned black people and mixed people of certain racial makeups definitely burn just as easy as white people.
However I have heard from non-black, but swarthy complected people, that some of them darken in hue as sunlight increases and don't burn unless they are out all day. One black woman I know, who was dark, but not overly so, didn't burn herself, nor did her mother, but her kids did as a result of her husband, who was of mostly spanish descent and apparently burned easily.
On the other hand, in exchange for good sun protection, many darker skinned black people have a vitamin deficiency (I think b12 or d) in reduced sunlight environments because their skin protects them from UV TOO well and keeps them from producing the vitamin metabolically in their skin, like they otherwise would.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 16 2018, @04:09PM
oh no you di-ent! evidently it's racist to make incorrect biological assumptions. cracker-ass crackers!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 15 2018, @05:28PM (4 children)
If you find this stuff so confusing that rather than make an inferior choice of sunscreen you simply throw up your hands and use no sunscreen at all, you might be a redneck.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 4, Touché) by bob_super on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:02PM (3 children)
If you walk into a room, and there are three sunscreens ... you get confused.
So you just wait, because Android P will take away two of the sunscreens you could have used, and replace them with gesturing at the sun to go away for a while (which works, with enough perseverance).
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:22PM (2 children)
Wait, people still use Suns for anything other than doorstops? I thought those went the way of the dodo a long time ago.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday May 16 2018, @12:34AM
It is called retrocomputing, ya know?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday May 16 2018, @06:23AM
SPARC is not affected by Meltdown
or Spectre.Turns out Oracle confirmed that SPARC 9 is indeed affected by Spectre. Security through obscurity?
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday May 15 2018, @06:40PM (1 child)
You really think us nerds go outside during the day, let alone have wives and/or children?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2, Funny) by DECbot on Tuesday May 15 2018, @07:14PM
I do like to turn the brightness on my monitor all the way up.
Unfortunately, besides the visible light, my monitor mostly emits UVB light, so I get no tanning effects from the monitors--only vicious burns.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 15 2018, @08:54PM
I once spent an entire day sledding down a snow-covered slope wearing nothing but pairs of shorts and shoes.
My friend said "This is the most fun anyone could ever have".
We were backpacking in the High Sierras.
By the time we hiked out to civilization, all three of us were sunburned on most of our bodies. Even in high school my hair was thinning; my burn formed a blister under my entire scalp. Eventually the outer layer of my outer scalp's skin came off in one chunk.
Here's the difference between professionals and amateurs:
I would gladly do it again.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 15 2018, @09:01PM
isn't capitalism supposed to sort out labelling. If you die, you won't buy the product again.
Always amazes me that the US has such lousy consumer protection laws.
Other countries manage without being upsetabout over regulation:
https://www.tga.gov.au/sunscreens [tga.gov.au]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex