OMG! Is there any organic chemicals in the Sunscreen that cause harms to our body?!

Whether you're lounging on the beach or hiking up a mountain or even you're outside, you're pummelled by invisible rays that can cause your skin to darken and burn. This radiation ultraviolet, or UV can also damage DNA in your skin cells, causing genetic mutations that can lead to skin cancer. Fortunately, you can protect against many of the damaging effects of these rays with sunscreen. For example in Japan, a cosmetic brand named ‘Biore’ produces a lot of types of sunscreen by categorise them with different SPF+ values. 

These are only some of the products of biore sunscreen. As you can see the left top of the products are stated SPF 50+ which means our skin will prevent burning on the skin for about 500 minutes, or about 8 hours.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF SPF+, PA+++, UVA AND UVB? 

1. SPF+ basically means a measurement of how much protection the sunscreen offers from the UVB rays that cause sunburn. Meaning to say, the higher the SPF (sun protection factor)  values, the longer time for the sunscreen to maintain on the skin in order to absorb the ultraviolet (UV) radiation from penetrating through the skin. For example, SPF 15+ will prevent burning on the skin for about 150 minutes, or 2.5 hours.

2. PA which refers to the amount of protection the sunscreen offers from the UVA rays that may cause long-term skin damage. PA rankings are listed as PA+, PA++ or PA+++. The more +'s, the more protection from UVA rays.

3.UVA basically means sun's ultraviolet A (long-wave). It penetrates the skin more deeply than UVB, has long been known to play a major part in skin aging and wrinkling (photoaging), but it did not cause significant damage in areas of outermost skin layer where most skin cancers occur.

 

4.UVB is the chief cause of skin reddening and sunburn, tends to damage the skin's more superficial epidermal layers. It plays a key role in the development of skin cancer and a contributory role in tanning and photoaging.

The comparison between UVB AND UVA lights.

DOES SUNSCREEN ONLY PROTECT OUR BODY FROM THE UV LIGHTS ONLY?

In this advanced era globalisation, most of the sunscreen are no longer only absorbs the UV lights into our body but they also came out the function of foundation, BB cream and also moisture (mostly for ladies). This is because their marketing strategy are mostly toward the lady.  

  This sunscreen act as the function of BB cream and also absorb UV light. I’m currently using this! 

  

 This sunscreen provide the function of moisture to our skin and also absorb UV lights. 

WHAT IS ACTUALLY CONTAINS INSIDE THE SUNSCREEN?

SUNSCREEN are so popular used in this generation, but how many people are alerted by knowing the active ingredients or so called organic chemical compounds inside? Are they harmful to our body? Most sunscreens work by containing either an organic chemical compound that absorbs ultraviolet light (such as oxybenzone) or an opaque material that reflects light (such as titanium dioxide, zinc oxide), or a combination of both. 

But today, we will be talking about the organic chemicals in the sunscreen which is OXYBENZONE.

STRUCTURE OF OXYBENZONE

The IUPAC name for oxybenzone is 2-Hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-phenylmethanone.

 Molecular formula is C14H12O3. 

 Molar mass is 228.24 g mol^{-1 .}

HOW DOES THE OXYBENZONE WORKS IN SUNSCREEN?

When the sun penetrate the skin, the bonds in oxybenzone will absorb UV radiation/light, the components of the sunscreen slowly break down and release heat.

WHAT IS OXYBENZONE?

 Oxybenzone belongs to the class of aromatic ketones known as benzophenones. It provides broad-spectrum ultraviolet coverage which is also including UVB and UVA rays. As a photoprotective agent, it has an absorption profile spanning from 270 to 350 nm with absorption peaks at 288 and 350 nm. It is one of the most widely used organic UVA filters in sunscreens today. For the electronic structure, as in related compounds, the hydroxyl group is hydrogen bonded to the ketone. This interaction contributes to oxybenzone's light-absorption properties. The short lifetime has been attributed to an extremely fast and reversible excited-state intramolecular hydrogen transfer between the oxygen of the carbon to oxygen and the OH. This pathway provides a better energy-wasting pathway that is responsible for the absorption functions. 

HOW DOES THE OXYBENZONE MANUFACTURED?

Oxybenzone is manufactured in several different countries including: Israel, The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, and China. One method of manufacturing oxybenzone is to condense benzoic acid with resorcinol monomethyl ether by heating the solution in the presence of ZnCl₂ and polyphosphoric acid. The second method of production utilizes a Friedel-Crafts reaction of benzoyl chloride with 3-hydroxyanisole. The product of this reaction is subsequently recrystallized from a solution of water and methanol and then dried.

SUNSCREEN ONLY CONTAINS OXYBENZONE? 

Of course, sunscreen is not only made by 100% oxybenzone only, this is because with exposure to sunlight, oxybenzone has been found to form free radicals through photogeneration, and therefore may be associated with cell damage. This only occurred when it was combined with other ingredients commonly found in sunscreen, like titanium oxide and octyl methoxycinnamate. On its own, oxybenzone was found to be a preferred UVA filter. 

WHAT ARE THE PRODUCTS ARE MADE UP FROM OXYBENZONE OTHER THAN SUNSCREEN?

It is also found in nail polish, fragrances, hairspray, and cosmetics as a photostabilizer.

DOES THE OXYBENZONE HARMFUL? 

I believe this is the hot topic among all the above. Sunscreen is typically applied topically, but many studies that claim oxybenzone is HAZARDOUS. 

Studies have shown that the oxybenzone is absorbed through the skin and excreted in urine. Up to 1–2% of the applied amount is estimated to be absorbed into the body. However, sunscreen may be putting you on a collision course with cancer. This can be explained by, absorbing chemicals (oxybenzone) through the skin can be more dangerous than ingesting them. This is because they are not decomposed by the potent acid (hydrochloric acid) of the stomach before reaching the blood stream. Stomach acid works to neutralize many chemical toxins, at least partially, and then the remaining toxins are passed through the normal filtration of the digestive system. 

In comparison, chemicals absorbed through the skin do not get diluted, filtered, or neutralized at all. They directly enter into the blood stream, by passing digestive safeguards. This is the predominant reason why people with large amounts of sun exposure statistically have higher rates of skin cancer, for it is their escalated use of sunscreens that is causing the cancers not the sun. 

As we know sun provide Vitamin D which is one of the most effective anti-cancer vitamins, and most cancers occur in people who do not get enough sunlight exposure at days, or vitamin D. But of course! not to expose too long under the sun as you may get skin cancer.