New labels on sunscreen designed to shine light on the effects of the sun’s rays will soon hit shelves.
The Food and Drug Administration recently issued new regulations for sunscreen manufacturers to promote more accurate labeling of products.
Catherine Seemann, communications coordinator at the UF Student Health Care Center, said knowing which sunscreen to choose can be overwhelming.
“You walk into a drugstore, and it is a wall — a giant wall of sunscreen products from oils to zinc,” she said, “How do you make that decision?”
One of the new labeling terms consumers can look for is the phrase “broad spectrum protection.” This means sunscreen is at least above a sun protection factor, SPF, of 15 and protects against both types of ultraviolet light: UVA and UVB rays. Also under the new regulations, sunscreen products that are not broad spectrum or that are broad spectrum with SPF values 14 and below will be labeled with a warning that says “Skin Cancer/Skin Aging Alert,” according to an FDA press release.
Sunscreens will no longer use the words sunblock, waterproof or sweatproof, according to the release.
The new labels could be the first time consumers will see a direct connection between sunscreen and prevention of those risks, said Dr. Christina L. Mitchell, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UF.
“Hopefully, this will make people think more about what they are choosing to put on their skin as a sunscreen and make them question the efficiency of what they are using,” Mitchell said. “We hope that people are not overconfident in these products.”
UF medical student Maryam Davoodi-Semiromi and UF psychology freshman Alexis Lopez lie out by Broward Pool on May 22.