Why you should always buy Australian made sunscreen

Sunscreen experts are pleading with Australian consumers to steer clear of so-called “sunscreen pills” and buy Australian-made products over American ones.

In a crackdown on the burgeoning sun protection industry, the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this year warned four companies to stop claiming their dietary supplements could protect people from sun damage.

It specifically named products by US companies GliSODin Skin Nutrients, Napa Valley Bioscience, Pharmacy Direct and Sunergized LLC, which don’t appear to be available in Australia as they are not on the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) register.

Some of these companies were basing their claims on the supposed anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of polypodium leucotomos, an extract from a tropical fern found in Central America.

Natasha Cook from Darlinghurst Dermatology said the claims were misleading and urged Australians to not be tempted by similar, edible products on the internet.

“Those properties are possible but it’s not proven and these claims are not authorised by FDA, or even TGA, and there’s no way these pills can replace a sunscreen,” Dr Cook said.

“These products may have a benefit in reducing inflammation and free radical damage, but it’s not a ‘sunscreen’ pill.”

Australia is known as the skin cancer capital of the world, with the majority of newly diagnosed cancers attributed to exposure to the harsh sun, according to the Cancer Council.

About two in three Australians will be diagnosed with skin cancer by the time they hit 70.

Dr Cook said Australia produced the most effective sunscreens in the world and consumers should opt for local products over highly marketed ones from overseas, especially if they’re made in America.

“We have the strictest testing facilities in the world,” she said. “Some of the laboratories in the US that do the SPF testing have been investigated for fraud.”

She said the SPF claims on some overseas sunscreen products were “garbage”. She’s aware of products in the US claiming SPF 50 actually delivering SPF 30.

While lots of new chemical ingredients have hit the market to make sunscreens clearer, lighter, and easier to apply, Dr Cook recommends using products with “physical” sun-blocking ingredients such as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.

“I like physical blockers definitively and if I’m looking for something to put on myself everyday, I go for a product that has zinc and/or titanium dioxide,” she said.

“So look for Australian made and that has a physical blocker in it.”

Concerns over certain chemicals, especially oxybenzone and octinoxate, and their impact on the environment have triggered bans.

Recently Hawaii banned sunscreens with those two chemicals and Palau banned products with any one of 10 chemicals thought to harm coral reefs.

In regards to oxybenzone, Associate Professor Rosemary Nixon from the Skin & Cancer Foundation said there were enough options out there for companies to move away from the controversial chemical.

“The sunscreen manufacturers say the concentrations are very low, but you wouldn’t want to be linked with anything like this and so rather than arguing, they should just remove it,” she said.

A TGA spokeswoman said sunscreen pill products were not approved for sale in Australia and sunscreening claims can only be made for products applied to the skin, meet the official standard and have been registered.