My name is Claire Monahan. I work at Nature’s Fare Markets on a variety of tasks including researching and developing sustainability initiatives, coordinating our employee training, writing content for our quarterly newsletter, and now I have become our in house blogger!

Lately there has been an increase in attention directed towards sunscreens and their active ingredients. Thanks to an informative seminar given by Lorna Vanderhaege that I attended a few years ago, I know that most conventional personal care products are teeming with hormone disrupters and estrogen mimickers. Sodium lauryl sulfate is used to get that nice foaming lather in shampoos and soaps, and parabens are generally used as preservatives. These hormone disrupters interfere with the normal action of our bodies’ endocrine system, meaning the system of hormones that is responsible for development, behavior, fertility, and a host of other functions. Messing around with the endocrine system can have long term side effects like cancerous tumors, learning disabilities, sexual development problems, and the list goes on.

Generally, I buy all my personal care items like shampoo and soap at Nature’s Fare, and I feel safe knowing that our purchasers have taken care to pick products that are free from these chemical compounds. There are times however, if I am on vacation for example, that I don’t have the option of popping into an NF (that’s our staffers nickname for our stores) to pick up a product that I know is hormone safe. Case in point, in May my boyfriend and I took a much needed vacation to Hawaii. In all the excitement to get out of Vernon and off to the tropics we forgot to pack sunscreen. Of all the things that you may need on a Hawaiian vacation we forgot the sunscreen! I did remember to bring a sweater and pair of jeans…which of course did not leave my bag the whole trip. Anyways, we hit a drugstore in search of some sun protection for our pasty white British Columbia winter skin. I started reading all the labels trying to find an option that had the fewest large unpronounceable words, thinking that I would be picking one that would have the least chemicals. I settled on a couple and we headed back to the hotel to hit the beach.

A few days later we were taking a siesta and flipping through the tv channels when we saw a news special talking about the potential dangers of the active ingredients in a number of main stream sunscreens. My boyfriend (who I am slowly trying to convert to the light side – aka the natural side) whipped out his laptop and started Googling the ingredients in the sunscreens that we had bought. The first was oxybenzone, an FDA approved ingredient that has been in use since 1978. This compound is used in sunscreens to protect the skin against broad spectrum ultraviolet light; however studies have shown that it can cause more damage than good. Oxybenzone is linked to hormone disruption and may potentially cause cell damage that is linked to skin cancer. We were horrified! Apparently, oxybenzone, when exposed to light, actually destroys DNA in skin cells and creates free radicals in the skin tissue. How can it be that a sunscreen – A SUNSCREEN – causes skin cell damage and creates free radicals when exposed to LIGHT…. ummm something doesn’t quite add up. Not only does oxybenzone have negative effects on our bodies, when we apply sunscreen and then go play in the ocean or lake, it is released into the water system. It’s speculated that four to six thousand tons of oxybenzone laden sunscreen is transferred from our skin to the ocean each year, having disastrous effects on coral reefs and other aquatic life. After the Google research session my boyfriend and I had learned about a number of other harmful chemicals that are used in sunscreens and we had both made the choice that we would practice sun safety in another way – limiting our time in the sun and taking cover under an umbrella during the really hot parts of the day. We also found a local natural food store that offered chemical free sunscreens with active ingredients like zinc and titanium dioxide. We did our homework on those guys too, and turns out that both ingredients are not actually absorbed by the skin, but instead stay on the surface and act like a mirror to reflect the sun’s rays. Titanium dioxide is effective at blocking ultraviolet B rays and short wave ultraviolet A rays, while zinc is most effective at blocking long ultraviolet A rays. By the way, B stands for Burning and A stands for Aging…I didn’t know that until now. Both zinc and titanium dioxide are safe when applied to skin and do not have any effect on hormones. The only downside that I have found to these natural options is that they tend to be a little heavier than conventional sunscreens and can take more time to rub into the skin. We have all seen the lifeguard with his or her nose covered completely in white paste – well, that would be the zinc/titanium dioxide. A lot of natural sunscreen manufacturers have taken steps to minimize the chalkiness of their products by adding natural thinners like essential oils. I tried LiveStrong SPF 50 sport sunscreen and Avalon SPF 15 sunscreen and was pleased with both products. They were a little whiter than the Hawaiian Tropics that I have used in the past, but I was happy to know that there was no oxybenzone absorbing into my skin and messing around with my hormones!

Now that I think I’ve gotten this sunscreen thing figured out, all we need is a little sun so that I can get out there and make use of my new found knowledge!

Be sure to check out page 4 in the July/August issue of The Good Life for more sun safe information and leave a comment for your chance to win a $100 Nature’s Fare gift card.