CHICAGO, Aug. 7 /EMWNews/ -- Since 1978, sunscreens have

been regulated and labeled by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the

basis of their SPF (Skin Protection Factor).



    On August 23, 2007, the FDA proposed new regulations for more

informative labeling of sunscreens. However, almost a year later, they

still remain pending.



    In response to FDA's inaction, and mounting concerns on the

unreliability of the SPF, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal

wrote to the FDA on July 24 criticizing its failure to regulate the

sunscreen industry, and prevent it from making "dangerously misleading

claims" on the safety and effectiveness of its products.



    A week later, Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Christopher Dodd (D-CT)

introduced the "Sunscreen Labeling Act of 2008." This gave the FDA six more

months to finalize comprehensive rules, otherwise the Act would become law.



    Sunscreens pose scientifically well-documented risks. While well known

for over a decade, they remain unregulated by the FDA, and ignored by the

industry.



    Sunscreens are based on six ingredients, some of which actively

penetrate the skin, accumulate in the body, and have been identified in

urine and breast milk.



    More ominously, these ingredients have toxic hormonal effects, known

technically as "endocrine disruptive." Evidence for these effects has been

well documented over the last decade. This includes stimulation of human

breast cancer cells in test tube experiments, and increased uterine growth

in immature female rats following skin painting or feeding.



    Sunscreens block short wave ultraviolet light (UVB), which is

responsible for sunburn. This encourages prolonged exposure, particularly

of children. Moreover, sunscreens are ineffective against long wave

ultraviolet light (UVA), which is responsible for malignant melanoma, the

fastest growing known cancer. As a result, its incidence has increased by

130%, and its mortality has increased by 26% since 1975. FDA's continuing

regulatory failure in this regard reflects the reckless indifference to

consumer product safety of its Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach,

former director of the National Cancer Institute.



    Of major concern, and still ignored by the FDA, is the increasing

addition to sunscreens of unlabeled atom or molecule size zinc oxide or

titanium dioxide particles. Technically known as nanoparticles, they

increase the durability and effectiveness of these products. However, as

reported in over two dozen scientific publications since 2003, including

those by an Environmental Protection Agency research team and the

International Center for Technology Assessment, nanoparticles can penetrate

the skin, invade blood vessels, and produce devastating distant toxic

effects.



    FDA's regulatory failure extends from sunscreens to a wide range of

other dangerous ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products. Of

illustrative concern is FDA's reckless failure to respond to November 1994

and May 2008 Citizen Petitions, by the Cancer Prevention Coalition,

"Seeking a Cancer Warning on Cosmetic Talc Products," used for feminine

hygiene. As detailed in these Petitions, talc is a major avoidable cause of

ovarian cancer, a relatively rare cancer at any age, whose incidence has

escalated dramatically by 12% for white and 32% for black women, with about

15,000 deaths annually. This makes it the fourth most common fatal cancer

after breast, colon and lung.



    The "Sunscreen Labeling Act" should be the first step to developing a

comprehensive "Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Labeling Act." This

could be modeled along the lines of California's precedential 2007 Safe

Cosmetics Act.



    As warned by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) at September 10, 1997

Hearings on the FDA Reform Bill, "The cosmetics industry has borrowed a

page from the playbook of the tobacco industry by putting profits ahead of

public health." This warning remains recklessly unheeded by the FDA.



    Samuel S. Epstein, MD



    Professor emeritus Environmental & Occupational Medicine



    University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health



    Chairman, Cancer Prevention Coalition



    Chicago, Illinois



    http://www.preventcancer.com



    [email protected]



    312.996.2297