It’s time to fill up on sunscreen, however few selections on retailer cabinets at the moment are each secure and effective, in response to an annual report by the Environmental Working Group, or EWG, a nonprofit well being and environmental advocacy group.
Now in its twentieth yr, EWG’s 2026 Guide to Sunscreens analyzed 2,784 merchandise and discovered solely 550 — about 20% — ship secure and effective safety in opposition to the dangerous rays of the solar.
The new information, launched May 19, lists the greatest baby and child sunscreens, together with these that are a great “bang for the buck” and the prime recreational sunscreens designed for out of doors actions corresponding to sports activities or spending time at the seaside.
In addition, customers can discover top-rated daily use sunscreens, together with moisturizers with solar safety issue (SPF) and the greatest lip balms with SPF in the report.
To be really helpful by EWG, sunscreens should shield in opposition to each UVA and UVB, two sorts of ultraviolet rays identified to wreck DNA and age the pores and skin. Due to inhalation dangers, sprays and powders usually are not included. Manufacturers can not declare over 50+ SPF or use federally banned advertising claims corresponding to “waterproof.”
Consumers are sometimes drawn to costlier merchandise that attain SPF ranges of as much as 100+, which declare to dam 99% of UVB rays. Yet there’s little distinction in effectiveness — a less expensive 50+ SPF sunscreen can block 98% of rays, in response to the report.
For some merchandise, SPF numbers can also be inflated. A peer-reviewed study by EWG scientists discovered, on common, sunscreens offered solely 1 / 4 of the UVA safety and 59% of the UVB safety acknowledged on the labels.
Recommended sunscreens in the new information additionally keep away from retinyl palmitate, a type of vitamin A; and chemical substances suspected to trigger most cancers, pores and skin irritation, allergic reactions or reproductive hurt, developmental points or neurotoxicity.
“Retinyl palmitate is part of the retinoid family that dermatologists recommend to fight wrinkles and other signs of aging. Those products come with warnings not to expose skin to the sun,” mentioned Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist at EWG.
“In 2010, about 40% of products contained retinal palmitate,” Friedman mentioned. “Today that’s dropped down to 3%, which is good news for consumers.”
Of the 550 merchandise really helpful by EWG, 497 are predominantly constituted of minerals that sit on the pores and skin and bodily deflect and block the solar’s rays. Because they don’t seem to be absorbed into the dermis, mineral-based sunscreens trigger little pores and skin irritation or toxicity.
The US Food and Drug Administration accredited two minerals for use in sunscreen — zinc oxide and titanium dioxide — which was once identified for the chalky, white solid they left after being utilized to the pores and skin. New, modern formulations and tinted choices now on the market have principally eliminated that concern, specialists say.
Chemical sunscreens, nonetheless, are designed to soak into the pores and skin and work by making a chemical response that absorbs ultraviolet radiation as power, dispersing it as warmth. A dozen sorts of chemical substances had been used for a long time in sunscreens with out concern. Then, in 2019, FDA scientists discovered six of the most generally used elements may enter the human bloodstream at unsafe ranges after only one day of use.
Those chemical substances then remained in the blood days after software stopped. In reality, two of the elements — homosalate and oxybenzone — stayed in the bloodstream above security thresholds for greater than two weeks.
The European Union is regulating homosalate as a possible endocrine disrupter, a chemical that may intervene with the physique’s hormones and trigger hostile developmental, reproductive, neurological or immune results.
Oxybenzone is a well-studied endocrine disrupter linked to birth defects, reproductive and thyroid hormone changes and pores and skin allergic reactions. It’s been present in human breast milk, blood and urine — one examine discovered oxybenzone in over 97% of US urine samples.
Due to its affect on the setting, oxybenzone has been banned in Hawaii, Key West, Florida, the US Virgin Islands, Thailand and different international locations. Studies have discovered elevated coral bleaching and reef dying, in addition to genetic injury to marine life.
Over the final 19 years, the variety of merchandise utilizing oxybenzone has dropped from 70% to solely 5%, in response to the 2026 information. Despite this alteration, the information may advocate solely 53 chemically primarily based sunscreens containing few regarding elements.
The Personal Care Products Council, which represents trade, informed NCS through electronic mail that questioning the security and efficacy of sunscreen merchandise undermines a long time of evidence-based analysis.
“Suggesting that solely a restricted variety of sunscreens are secure and effective discourages sunscreen use, which may hurt public well being, particularly for these with repeated solar publicity, mentioned PCPC’s chief scientist Dr. Jaap Venema.
David Andrews, the chief scientific officer for EWG, informed NCS in an electronic mail that “the FDA itself, not EWG, determined that 12 of the 16 chemical filters currently on U.S. shelves lack sufficient safety data to be classified as safe and effective. That is not EWG’s opinion. That is the FDA’s own finding.”
Under Trump appointed FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the FDA proposed new sunscreen rules in 2019 that requested producers to research the safety of oxybenzone, homosalate and 10 different chemical substances to see if they need to be thought of GRASE, or “generally regarded as safe and effective.”
At the time, these 12 chemical substances had been utilized in sunscreens for a long time — and are nonetheless used at the moment. To date, these research haven’t been introduced, nor has the FDA handed any up to date rules.
A spokesperson for the FDA informed NCS in an electronic mail the FDA is reviewing the public feedback it obtained. “These timelines can vary depending on the volume and substantiveness of the comments received. The FDA cannot comment on the exact timing of the final order, nor on the specific content of that final order.”
Despite the historic lack of regulation, there’s a sunny spot: The FDA announced in December it might permit US producers to make use of bemotrizinol, a well-liked chemical ingredient used for a long time in Europe.
“BMT is a filter that provides adequate UVA protection, is not easily absorbed into the skin, and has the most robust safety data on any UV filter to date,” mentioned Friedman. “This is the first innovation change we’ve seen in the last 20 years.”
While it’s technically unlawful to promote non-FDA-approved sunscreens in the US, customers have been purchasing European and Asian merchandise on-line for a while, citing their light-weight really feel, higher safety and availability to a bigger number of pores and skin tones. That cosmetic touch is necessary, specialists say, as many individuals avoid sunscreen as a consequence of its heavy, greasy really feel.
Sunscreen ought to really be towards the backside of your record of solar safety choices, specialists say. Consider a “layered approach”: put on clothes constituted of tightly woven material, sun shades and wide-brim hats and mix sunscreen with staying in the shade throughout the hours between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. when the solar is at its hottest.
Sunscreen lives as much as its SPF solely when it’s utilized appropriately, and many individuals don’t apply sufficient of it, specialists say. One ounce of sunscreen, sufficient to fill a shot glass, is taken into account the quantity wanted to cowl uncovered areas of the physique, in response to the American Academy of Dermatology.
The academy recommends making use of sunscreen to dry pores and skin quarter-hour earlier than going exterior. Remember to reapply sunscreen to your self and your kids each two hours or instantly after swimming or sweating.
Children are particularly susceptible to the solar — infants underneath 6 months shouldn’t be uncovered to direct daylight in any respect. Sunburns in infants will be medical emergencies, in response to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Just just a few unhealthy sunburns in childhood can elevate the danger of growing the deadliest type of pores and skin most cancers, referred to as melanoma. Toxic chemical substances used for a long time in sunscreens can hurt growing our bodies and brains.
Don’t fall for any social media hype that tries to say the solar “does not cause skin cancer.” Ultraviolet radiation is a “proven human carcinogen,” inflicting squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and melanoma, in response to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
Unless accelerated by a tanning mattress, pores and skin injury can take years, if not a long time to develop, specialists say, leaving at the moment’s unwary youth in danger for early pores and skin growing old and deadly pores and skin cancers corresponding to melanoma.
“Melanoma is the deadliest cancer known to man,” mentioned Dr. Kelly Olino, medical director of the Smilow Melanoma Program at the Yale Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut, in a prior NCS interview.
“Melanoma is the only type of cancer where, if it is two millimeters in size, we say ‘Goodness, this is serious,’” she mentioned. “If you had a two-millimeter colon cancer, we’d be having a parade saying, ‘Wow, we got this one really, really early.’”