With so many claims , it's no wonder people are confused — and concerned — about the safety of chemical sunscreens. "I just had a patient who is on his sixth , and he asked about chemical sunscreens," Dr. Abigail Waldman, clinical director of the Mohs and Dermatologic Surgery Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, tells TODAY.
com. Similarly, Dr. Helen He, practicing dermatologist and assistant professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, tells TODAY.
com that she's seen a lot of headlines about the topic recently. "And in my clinic, I will occasionally get questions from patients about (whether) certain sunscreens are carcinogenic or if they have effects on hormone levels," she says. Ultimately, the experts agree: "The best sunscreen is the one that you are going to use consistently," Waldman says, as long as it's at least 30 SPF and comes with broad spectrum protection.
And, despite the scary headlines and chatter on social media, many people can safely choose a chemical sunscreen. Sunscreen active ingredients fall into two broad categories: chemical and mineral (also called physical sunscreens). If you look at the ingredients label on a sunscreen in the U.
S., you'll see a box with the active ingredients listed out, Waldman says. Chemical sunscreens are identifiable by their active ingredients, such as oxybenzone, avobenzone and octinoxate.
These ingredients protect against UV rays by absorb.