10 shocking facts about sunscreen

After reading study after study reporting the alarming increase in skin cancer cases over the last several years, I've started to wonder what sunscreen might have to do with it. I recently came across the research of Dr. Elizabeth Plourde, the author of Sunscreens Biohazard - Treat as Hazardous Waste. Dr. Plourde is a hormone specialist with 25 years of extensive medical research and writing to her credit who has recently focused her attention on the hormonally disruptive chemicals utilized in sunscreens. I had the opportunity to speak with her a few days ago and here are the most disturbing conclusions of her research:

1. Sunscreens are now in 97 percent of Americans' blood streams and in 85 percent of breast milk samples.

2. The rapid increase in melanoma cases demonstrates sunscreen is NOT the answer. Sunscreens contribute to its cause because they leave the skin open to deeper penetrating radiation! The FDA only requires UV filtering, but UV rays only make up 4 percent of the solar radiation spectrum. Sunscreen use exposes the skin longer to near infrared rays that account up 47 percent of solar radiation and penetrate deeper than UV rays.

3. Sunscreen chemicals pass through the placenta causing fetal development disruption. Fish show gender disruption due to sunscreen chemicals' strong hormonal influences, indicating the same gender disruption can occur in human fetuses. Common in the news today are children with gender identity confusion.

4. Sunscreen could play an indirect role in the development of autism. Recent statistics show that autism is continuing to rise and to increase more rapidly in boys, which highlights the importance of addressing the many connections that connect the development of autism with the use of sunscreens:

• The ratio of autistic boys compared to girls has risen from 4:1 to 4.6:1, or approximately 5 boys to every girl. Sunscreens are more potent anti-testosterones than Flutamide, the anti-testosterone drug given to prostate cancer patients to block the action of their testosterone. This would impact male development more than female development.


• Autistic children demonstrate thyroid disruption. Sunscreens demonstrate the ability to disrupt normal thyroid development in the fetus. Abnormal thyroid affects speech and cognitive skills, both are aspects of the spectrum of autistic disorders.


• Autism rates vary by race. () 2008 reconfirms Caucasians have a higher incidence rate than either African Americans or Hispanics. More Caucasians use sunscreen than the other two groups, as evidenced by the higher percentage of sunscreen chemicals found in their blood.


• The rise in autism incidence parallels the rise in sunscreen use. In the 1970s and 1980s when sunscreens were introduced, the incidence of children diagnosed with autism was approximately 1 in 2,000. The 2008 reports that it is now 11 per 1,000.


• Vitamin D is identified as crucial to proper brain development before the age of 2. Sunscreen blocks vitamin D production and proper brain development cannot take place. The deficiencies in the brain development — as a result of low vitamin D — are being identified in autistic children.


• Aluminum is suspected as a cause of autism. Sunscreens contain aluminum — whether it is listed on the label or not — as it is used in processing the ingredients.

5. Vitamin D deficiency is becoming pandemic. Sunscreen use prevents the ability of the skin to manufacture our vitally important vitamin D. Diseases that occur from low vitamin D are increasing at rapid rates, including cancers. The cost for cancers resulting from vitamin D deficiencies in 2004 alone are estimated to be between $40 and 56 billion.

6. Coral die within 96 hours of exposure to low levels of sunscreen chemicals. The stress created by these toxins makes coral less resistant to slight temperature fluctuations.

7. Phytoplankton, the crucial bottom of the food chain, die because they absorb sunscreens' zinc oxide until they explode.

8. Sunscreen chemicals are now ubiquitous in our lakes and rivers around the world.

9. Upon exposure to sunscreen chemicals, fish become "inter-sexed" as they develop both male and female reproductive organs. Some even stop spawning all together.

10. Sunscreen chemicals are even in muscles of the fish we eat.

All of this may seem a little overwhelming because it flies in the face of conventional wisdom and everything we have been taught by dermatologists and skincare experts over the last decade. I'm sure you may be as disturbed as I am, but I have some practical suggestions that will help you to transition into a skin-protective program from the outside in and the inside out.

Learn also about the safest sunscreen on the market.