4 ms·
4 things to know about the new sunscreen ingredient the FDA approved
- fhdkweig 3mo agoThis topic has been posted at about the same time in another thread, but neither has any comments https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48523165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48523165
- ChrisArchitect 3mo agoPreviously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48507024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48507024 and related large discussion this week: European sunscreens are safer than American (2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48503940 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48503940
- emptybits 3mo agoBemotrizinol is the ingredient being discussed. If you're looking for a specific product to try, check out Ombrelle and also La Roche-Posay's Anthelios line. I share this as a Canadian (bemotrizinol has been available here for years), but check the ingredients because it may vary by country because of regulations. Aside: I did a bunch of sunscreen research some time ago for my family. I like the non-absorbing/non-reactive aspect of mineral screens but settled on a chemical screen and bemotrizinol seemed favoured but we landed instead on the Kinesys brand of sprays which we love because they're very waterproof and sweatproof in our experience but they feel like almost nothing. YMMV.
- jzig 3mo agoThank you for sharing your experience. Any idea If I search for Kinesys spray product on the American Amazon site will it be the same? What are the active ingredients?
- emptybits 3mo agoDunno. Brands definitely change their ingredients to conform to national health/drug regs so I’d inquire via their US site. kinesysactive.com
- chadcmulligan 3mo ago+1 for La Roche - my daughter has fair sensitive skin and burns easily, its the best she finds (in Australia)
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- Grombobulous 3mo agoSadly, you’ll have to wait for those brands in the US. > DSM-Firmenich has exclusive rights to market bemotrizinol in the U.S. for 18 months. It will be sold under the brand name Parsol Shield.
- y-curious 3mo agoWell, you could have and still can buy them shipped from other countries on sites like eBay. Shame it has to come to this in the land of the free, however.
- picofarad 3mo agoTpu were free to bid competitively to have exclusive rights for your company. What's the problem?
- Grombobulous 3mo agoI guess I’m unsure if the FDA approval makes importing these legal. I also imagine that it’s not really worth doing just to get a specific brand in terms of cost. An 18-month exclusive period is annoying but not the end of the world.
- emeril 3mo agowhy not just get the least obtrusive physical sunscreen like "clear" thinksport? My fear is that all of these chemical based ones increase the rates of disease in susceptible populations which is hard to detect
- culi 3mo agoThe large physical size of the compound means it has trouble passing through biological membranes. This is why it has really low toxicity and doesn't bioaccumulate despite the fact that it doesn't biodegrade over time. It does seem to accumulate on lake and ocean floors though. I think the larger concern is not on human or animal health but on long term ecological consequences which are harder to study
- brynnbee 3mo agoAnthelios line still contains homosalate in a concentration 20x higher than recommended by EU. I do like that brand a lot though.
- culi 3mo agoSynthesized from hydroxyphenyl-triazines (HPTs). HPTs were invented to protect materials like automotive paints, aerospace coatings, and heavy-duty plastics from solar degradation. It doesn't seem to bioaccumulate in marine organisms despite the fact that it doesn't biodegrade. This seems to be due to the sheer size of the compound making it not easily cross the biological membranes. It does however accumulate on lake and ocean bed sediments so there are still some long term concerns. Overall it's environmental profile seems like a huge step up from previous classes of sunscreen chemicals but it's not perfect either.
- erelong 3mo agocertain long clothes allows for skipping sunscreen entirely in perpetuity
- OptionOfT 3mo agoYour clothes still need to have a certain SPF, and you're not gonna wear gloves when 100 outside are you?
- gibspaulding 3mo agoJust about any shirt is going to have a higher spf/upf than any normal sunscreen. Also who puts sunscreen on their hands?? A long sleeve sunshirt with a hood or better yet a floppy hat is where it’s at. I have a couple of the Colombia PFG ones that I wear for working outside, though I’d like to see if I can find something cotton instead since I’m not a huge fan of synthetic fibers.
- hilariously 3mo agoI put sunscreen on my hands or I will have completely burnt hands. There's many of us who cant have more than about an hour in direct sunlight (and sometimes much less) before redness and soon burning occurs.
- XorNot 3mo agoWhile generally true, it's worth remembering that thin shirts can have an SPF as low as 50 or so, which isn't much.
- rdedev 3mo agoI guess this is the reason why the sunscreens from haruharu are now suddenly available in amazon
- hankbond 3mo agoWould have liked to hear about the safety profile for marine life that this has compared to other chemical sunscreens.
- y-curious 3mo agoCursory googling led to a bunch of commercial sites calling it reef safe and they mostly reference this article: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-3195-4 https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-97-3195-4 I’m not paying for access to this and can’t be bothered to pirate it, I’m going to just believe the front page of Google
- mil22 3mo agoBEMT is the first new ingredient allowed by the FDA since the 1990s. It's meaningful but a very narrow decision. The FDA still has not approved any of the following sunscreens that have been widely used outside of the US, in some cases for decades: - DHHB / Uvinul A Plus - EHT / Uvinul T150 - MBBT / Tinosorb M - Iscotrizinol / Uvasorb HEB - Drometrizole trisiloxane - Mexoryl XL - Methoxypropylamino cyclohexenylidene ethoxyethylcyanoacetate - Mexoryl 400 - Polysilicone-15 - Parsol SLX - Disodium phenyl dibenzimidazole tetrasulfonate - Neo Heliopan AP - Tris-biphenyl triazine - Tinosorb A2B - Phenylene bis-diphenyltriazine - TriAsorB - Diethylhexyl syringylidene malonate (photostabilizer) If you live in the US, you are quite literally taking a risk with your health using US-made sunscreens. Luckily brands like Beauty of Joseon (Korean) and many others are readily available through sites like Yamibuy.
- qwerpy 3mo agoNo one cares more about sun protection than Asian women living in SoCal. My wife and her friends usually use Korean or Japanese brands that they buy here in the states. Seems to work just fine.
- OutOfHere 3mo agoThere is no risk with using zinc oxide 24%. It works too well and is safe. The risk is with chemical sunscreens having hormone disrupting effects, although bemotrizinol is expected to be safer in this regard, especially if it's not stacked with older harmful chemicals.
- mil22 3mo agoYes, if you're savvy enough to know to stick to sunscreens that contain zinc oxide as the only ingredient (I don't think most people are), and don't mind looking like a ghost (the white cast) or getting white marks on your clothes, this is a safe and effective option. If you aren't checking the ingredients lists carefully, like most people aren't, and you don't know that most sunscreen-containing products in the US are hormone disruptors, like most people don't, your health is at risk.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]