I did a double take when I heard the news. Supermodel Gisele Bundchen has stated that she doesn’t use sunscreen. Since her career hinges on her skin looking perfect (and it does), this was rather surprising to hear! Even more shocking—she told reporters that she “cannot put this poison on my skin.”

Gisele made these comments during the launch of her new skincare line, Sejaa. I’m assuming this means we won’t be seeing any SPF numbers on any of her products. (Checked her website on that—nope. No SPF.)

Dermatologists aren’t happy with Gisele’s comment. They worry it will lead women to follow in her footsteps, and with skin cancer on the rise, they hate to see people putting themselves at risk. In response to all the concern, Gisele posted a clarification on her blog, stating, “I do use sunblock but I try my best not to be exposed to the sun when it is too strong. My line of skincare products are all natural and do not contain SPF. I feel we all need to pay more attention to what we are putting on our skin. I definitely know the importance of using sunscreen and I try to look for more natural options.”

I have to say that I can understand where Gisele is coming from. Though I agree that we must be smart about protecting our skin, there is a lot of confusion out there right now regarding sunscreens. Most brands contain potentially toxic chemical ingredients that in my book, are just too risky to be regularly putting on your skin. Ingredients like PABA, oxybenzone, salicylates, and others have been linked with hormone disruption, developmental problems, and free radical damage, and all have shown the ability to penetrate the skin and get into the bloodstream. Most of the studies have been done in the lab or on animals, but the risk is there, and it’s definitely strong enough to make me feel uneasy.

With all the evidence we have so far today, zinc oxide appears to be the safest option—that is, as long as you’re not exposed to it in nanoparticles. Regular zinc oxide is still recommended for use on children, and though it may be a little less convenient, as some brands (but not all) can still leave a white color on skin, it’s still got the most support behind it from a scientific standpoint. However, zinc oxide isn’t the easiest to use in skincare formulas, so many that choose to include a sunscreen will use the chemical options instead.

Gisele obviously wanted to create an all-natural skincare line that had no toxic synthetic ingredients, so she chose to do so without including sunscreens. I do want to remind everyone, though, that skin cancer is a very real danger when it comes to exposure to UV rays. Fortunately, there are some great options out there today for people looking for safety and protection. Try the Badger brands, as they are zinc oxide formulas that have the highest safety ratings from the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Safety Database. Loving Naturals also gets a #1 rating, as do several others that you can see on the database list.

Bottom line is that you don’t feel like you have to go without sunscreen. There are safer options. What I think is good about Gisele’s very public comment is that she will probably be able to draw attention to this matter in a more visible way than any of the rest of us could. Who knows? Maybe the manufacturers will pay more attention, the public will pay more attention, and in the end we’ll get safer skin care products. Then we’ll all be thanking Gisele for speaking up.

Have you found a safe sunscreen that you love? Please let us know!

Photo courtesy the Ctuna8162 via Flickr.com.

Look at the labels. If your sunscreen has any of these, you may want to consider tossing it:
Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone), PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB,  glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid, padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA), cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate), salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate), digalloyl trioleate, menthyl anthranilate, and avobenzone.

Let’s review just some of the evidence:

• Drs. Cedric and Frank Garland of the University of California believe that increased use of chemical sunscreens is the primary cause of the skin-cancer epidemic.
• Norwegian scientists found that octyl methoxycinnamate (OMC), used as a UVB filter in 90 percent of sunscreens worldwide, killed half of the mouse cells in an alcohol solution when added at a much lower concentration than occurs in sunscreens. When researchers shown a lamp for two hours to simulate midday sunshine, more cells died, suggesting the reaction between OMC and sunlight created an effect twice as toxic as the chemical alone.
• The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recommends that consumers avoid sunscreens with oxybenzone, as it is a hormone-disrupting chemical that readily absorbs through human skin.
• A study published in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology found that benzophenone (BP) UV filters act as endocrine disruptors. In other words, they can mimic the female hormone estrogen and interfere with the male hormone, testosterone. The study found that the effects can be detected at levels found in human blood after applying sunscreen.
• A study led by Roberto Danovaro of the Polytechnic University of Marche in Italy found that chemical sunscreens may be killing off coral reefs. The ingredients in them (parabens, cinnamates, benzophenones, and a camphor derivative) can activate viruses in an algae that live inside the coral species, which then replicate until their algae hosts explode, spilling viruses into the water and infecting neighboring coral reefs. Danovaro recommended physical sunscreen (like zinc oxide) instead.
• Studies at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology found that many widely used sunscreen chemicals mimic the effects of estrogen and trigger developmental abnormalities in rats. In lab tests, all five ingredients (benzophenone-3, momosalte, 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor (4-MBC), octyl-methoxycinnamate and octyl-dimethyl-PABA) behaved like estrogen and made cancer cells grow more rapidly. 4-MBC was also found to cause a doubling of the rate of uterine growth well before puberty. “That was scary,” said Margaret Schlumpf, lead researcher, “because we used concentrations that are in the range allowed in sunscreens.”
• A study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology showed that all sunscreen agents investigated penetrated into the skin, with benzophenone-3 passing through in significant amounts.

We could go on and on, but you get the point. Safest bet where sunscreens are concerned? Zinc oxide. Studies show that it protects better, plain and simple.

Have you thrown away your chemical sunscreens? Share your story!

Photo courtesy of maurice somers via Flickr.com.