Department of Health and Human Services, and various other regulatory agencies, benzene is known to cause cancer in humans. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Valisure, a pharmacy dedicated to batch testing medications before they reach consumers, found in a recent test that 78 different sunscreen and after-sun care products contained benzene, a potential carcinogen.Īccording to the U. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. (SOUNDBITE OF VIBE2VIBE'S "BLINDING LIGHTS (COVER)")Ĭopyright © 2021 NPR. NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy, thank you very much. GODOY: He says mineral-based sunscreens - so zinc oxide and titanium oxide - are a good bet, especially for little kids, because they don't absorb into the skin. His advice when shopping for sunscreens is to stay away from spray sunscreens for now.ĪDAM FRIEDMAN: Go back to basics - you know, the creams and lotions and liquids. Adam Friedman is chair of dermatology at George Washington School of Medicine. But it's important to keep using sunscreen to protect against skin cancer. GODOY: Well, stop using the sunscreens that have been recalled. GARCIA-NAVARRO: So where does this leave consumers, exactly? But you don't want all of those exposures from various sources to add up over time. GODOY: Teitelbaum says it's likely most of the benzene found in these sunscreens is evaporating, and only a little bit is being absorbed in the skin. And that's why low levels of any single product used repeatedly combined with all of our background exposures increases the rates of cancer in the population. But he says the problem is that we are exposed to low levels of benzene from various sources all the time, in the air we breathe from things like petrochemical refining and vehicle exhaust.ĭANIEL TEITELBAUM: And that, of course, adds up. He spent decades studying benzene exposure. Daniel Teitelbaum of the Colorado School of Public Health. So by themselves, they don't pose a big risk. That said, the levels found in sunscreens were relatively low. GODOY: Well, benzene is a known carcinogen. GARCIA-NAVARRO: How much benzene is actually in the products being recalled? I mean, how concerned should we be? GODOY: Johnson & Johnson says when they heard about this, they did their own testing and realized contamination was there and worked with the FDA to issue a recall. So it was honestly quite shocking to me that this is what we were finding. LIGHT: So we found that it really appears to be a pretty broad issue in sunscreens and after-sun care products. GODOY: But when they tested a wide variety of sunscreens, they got a hit on benzene in a lot of samples. It's been known as being very harmful to humans for over a hundred years. But David Light, Valisure's CEO, says he was surprised when his chief scientific officer added benzene to the list of things to test for.ĭAVID LIGHT: Honestly, I thought would be a waste of time. One day, a customer asked them to test sunscreens for a bunch of contaminants, and they said, sure. GODOY: Well, there's an independent testing company called Valisure, and they run tests for products sold by their pharmacy partner. GARCIA-NAVARRO: So why are they being tested? Both companies say the move is out of an abundance of caution. CVS also recalled its After Sun Aloe Vera and After Sun Aloe Vera Spray. That includes Neutrogena Beach Defense and Ultra Dry Sport and Aveeno's Protect and Refresh. GODOY: Well, the sunscreens involved are all spray sunscreens made by Johnson & Johnson. GARCIA-NAVARRO: OK, what specific products are being recalled here? And I do have my pencil. They still have to figure that out, though. They don't know how benzene got into these products, but it appears to be an industrial contaminant. It's an industrial solvent used to make things like plastics. Benzene is in gasoline, crude oil and cigarette smoke. Benzene is not supposed to be in sunscreen. GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, let's give listeners a chance to grab a pencil before we list the specific products being recalled because there are quite a few of them. Here to tell us more is NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy. It's because testing detected benzene in product samples, a toxic chemical that's a known carcinogen. There's a recall out now for some sunscreen and after-sun products.
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