HOW TO SELECT A MINERAL SUNSCREEN THAT IS TRULY SAFE AND EFFECTIVE

Hormone disruptors or Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) have been in the news again. At The Endocrine Society Meeting  (2016) , a Danish study (Skakkebaek et al) confirmed that 13/30 UV filters tested or 45%  had direct effects on human sperm cells explaining the male infertility associated with sunscreens. They imitated the hormones progesterone and prostaglandin, not estrogen, as is usual. They disrupted numerous functions required for fertility by simulating hormonal signals controlling the CatSper ion channel for calcium flux – a very specific mechanism for human sperm cells. Eight  of the 13 offending sunscreen agents are still used widely in N. America.

In considering the problem there are important principles of human endocrine receptor function that provide a perspective and negate all animal studies referred to by industry and Health Canada. Several aspects of human endocrine receptor physiology seem to escape regulators like the FDA or Health Canada, the sunscreen industry, and unfortunately most dermatologists. They are either unwilling or unable to understand basic concepts even when the World Health Organization (WHO), The Endocrine Society, and The United Nations Environmental Program, have gone to great lengths to alert the world to the science, and the rising incidence of reproductive disorders and cancers in humans and lower species. Important aspects of human endocrine receptor function  provide a perspective (taken from WHO/UNEP ES 2012). Humans are not large rodents and human endocrine receptors function differently from mice and other lower species. Animal studies in mice and other lower species suggest that only large doses are toxic.

As a former specialist in Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) and Reproductive Endocrinology, I believe the Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDC’s) are already affecting human health and I stopped exposing my family some 30 years ago.

Even if they were not harmful, soluble filters gain entry to blood, tissue and brain. In pregnancy they pass through the placenta and bind to the various hormone receptors in the embryo and fetus. This is a bad idea. The World Health Organization report confirms the serious threat that hormone receptors pose to humans and wildlife. What it does not say is the obvious corollary that in our society, soluble sunscreen filters and other small Molecular Weight (MW) sized chemicals smaller than 500 Daltons, like the preservative parabens, are the single most important source of exposure to EDCs.