Is sunscreen actually bad for you?

That’s complete and total bunk, as any dermatologist will tell you.

I don’t know about it causing skin cancer, but I did read an article a while back in a magasine that discussed the downside of constant use of sunscreen. Because sunscreen stops your skin absorbing UVA and UVB, you will also not absorb vit. A and D and this may result in a deficiency in extreme cases…

i hope not, i use spf 65 =x

Just as a word of caution “anything in excess is harmful to your health” If you only use sunscreen during summer time then I don’t see a problem with it. Make sure you read the label and find its side effects on google. There are sunscreen brands that use more natural ingredients, I bet supermarkets like wholefoods, trader joes, Mother’s market carry them.

it depends if the sunscreen has radical oxygen species. some sunscreens do and that could lead to cancer. the only way to prevent this is by re-applying every few hours. i know that coppertone has radicals. (i did a full year study on the effects of radiation on the skin, and i went in depth about sunscreen and its ingredients). try to get sunscreen with zinc and copper in it, because that isn’t absorbed by the skin, it lies on top of the skin and reflects the UV radiation. the other ingredients get absorbed into your skin and take the damage instead of the skin. these can be , but aren’t always, very harmful. the spf just means that 1/spf# of radiation gets through the barriers.

Sorry Mtl zack, but your answer is only partially correct. Most sunscreens function as filters to prevent the ultraviolet (UV) mediated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the epidermal layer. Sunscreens don’t have free radicals in them. However,some of these UV filter molecules can themselves generate ROS when exposed to UV radiation, but so far only one peer-reviewed research article has shown that this occurs in the deeper skin layers. You (and the cited article) do give good advice, which is to reapply sunscreen frequently and liberally.