GoodGuide Baby Sunscreen Ratings

It’s important to pick sun care products that will protect you from the sun, and the health risks of sunscreen are generally still lower than sitting out and broiling yourself a nice shade of cadmium red. In the United States, the active ingredient in most sunscreens is oxybenzone, a moderately effective sun blocker but one that reacts with sunlight to form possibly allergenic and carcinogenic chemicals. Oxybenzone is a popular ingredient because it rubs in well, but for safety, we recommend sunscreens with either titanium dioxide or zinc oxide as the active ingredient. (more)

Some companies use a nano-particle sized version of titanium dioxide or zinc oxide (often referred to on labels as micronized titanium dioxide or micronized zinc oxide), which absorbs better and won’t make you look ghostly. But nano-scale ingredients are also small enough to be an inhalation risk in powder or spray-on sun care products, and titanium dioxide is known to be carcinogenic if inhaled.

Sunscreens also commonly contain immune system toxicants DMDM hydantoin (a form of formaldehyde used as a preservative) and triethanolamine (a common pH adjuster), as well as neurotoxins like aluminum starch octenylsuccinate (a heavy metal used as a thickener).

Chemical blends of ingredients added to sun care products to make it smell good and labeled “fragrance” on the ingredient list are often strong allergy concerns and frequently conceal the presence of toxic phthalates.

Anti-bacterial chemical and immune system toxicant triclosan also finds its way into sunscreen—and if your sunscreen washes off at the beach or the river, the triclosan will find its way out into the environment, where it’s hazardous to marine life and could lead to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria.

You can use GoodGuide to find sun care products without many (or any) of those chemicals by checking ingredient lists or looking for sunscreens with high health and environment ratings. You can also check for products that have not been tested on animals.