SO WHAT IS GOING ON WITH SUNSCREEN? IT IS ALWAYS IN THE NEWS! There are at least four sunscreen issues that have appeared in the news over the last few years. All of these issues relate to active ingredients, but we’ll look at each issue separately.
“New” UV Filters If you were to go back in time 20 years and travel to Europe, you’d find a wide variety of sunscreens/active ingredients available that you would not find for sale in the U.S. You might learn that some of these sunscreens are reportedly more effective than U.S. sunscreens, and you might hear that many consumers indicate a preference for the “feel” of these sunscreens over the ones in the U.S. Demand for these sunscreens began to grow, and as would be expected, the companies that make these products applied for their sunscreens/ingredients to be marketed in the U.S. There was even a new approval process introduced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002, called a “time and extent application” (TEA) that attempted to provide a faster approval route for over-the-counter (OTC) drugs—like sunscreens—whose safety and efficacy could be reviewed and determined based on a minimum of five continuous years of safe use elsewhere. Important note: In the U.S., the FDA regulates sunscreens as OTC drugs, unlike Europe, which categorizes them as cosmetics. Eight “new” (to the U.S.) active ingredients were submitted for FDA approval using the TEA process between 2002 and 2009. These are: amiloxate, enzacamene, octyl triazone, bemotrizinol, bisoctrizole, iscotrizinol, ecamsule, drometrizole, and trisiloxane. Again: These eight ingredients are different from the 16 noted above. These TEA applications were good news, especially in light of the July 2014 U.S. Surgeon General’s issuance of A Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer, stating that nearly 5 million Americans each year are treated for skin cancer; that most cases are preventable, as they are related to UV exposure; and that the annual treatment cost was estimated at $8.1 billion. More options for protection, especially if they are better products, is a good thing for consumers. page 5
