Is the sunscreen only a vast deception? Internet users are claiming it in recent days. “According to the National Cancer Institute, since the introduction of sunscreen in 1940, melanoma has increased by more than 200 %,” said a man in a widely left English video.
Spectacular images at the press, he places a lighter in front of the aerosol cream which therefore produces a flame. “Everyone uses these toxic sprays on their bodies. […] It is practically oil, “he adds before concluding:” Reality is that it kills you slowly. »»
“In reality, these solar creams introduce toxins and chemicals in your body, disturb your endocrine system and hamper an optimal absorption of the benefits of the sun,” write this video.
FAKE OFF
The number of diagnosed skin cancer has indeed increased in recent years. In France, between 1990 and 2023, the number of new cases of skin cancer has been multiplied by three.
According to the public health estimates France, between 141,000 and 243,500 new cases are thus detected each year. It is therefore the most common cancer, but also the one that increases the most.
“People say” skin cancers increase because we protect ourselves more “, but this is called the paradox of protection. People are increasingly exposing in the sun with this culture of tanning. So as we had an increase in sun consumption, we have this increase in skin cancers, “explains Jérôme Hinfray, responsible for information and scientific communication within the league against cancer.
“We are not all equal in the face of solar risk”
And if we are exposed more but we protect ourselves more, should the number of cancer not remain stable? It’s not as simple as that. “We protect ourselves badly and the protection is never 100 %,” says the specialist. “Solar creams are not sufficient because you never know exactly how to use it well: every time how long to put it back, what amount to apply …”
Too much to expose the sun always presents a danger, and this explains the number of cancers that keeps increasing. This always tanned complexion is not without consequences. It is therefore advisable to be exposed in moderation, even by correctly applying your sunscreen – which, we are not going to lie, is rare.
Besides, Jérôme Hinfray recalls: “We are not all equal in the face of solar risk. By our skin color, but not only. For example, for a woman, the risk to skin cancer, such as melanoma, is greater during the reproductive period, due to the hormone level.
And we must particularly be wary of the sunburn that we take when you are young. “Over the age, our sensitivity to the sun is evolving. For example, young children are very sensitive. The clever melanoma is very sensitive to the sunburn that you have been able to receive in childhood, ”underlines the specialist.
A compound at the heart of the debates for its toxicity over time
In addition, professionals insist on the need to change its bottle of sunscreen each year. And for good reason, CNRS and Sorbonne University researchers alerted to a compound: octocrylene. It “degrades itself within bottles in a known, carcinogenic and endocrine disruptor compound: benzophenone”. It is also a component present in other cosmetics such as moisturizing creams or shampoos.
The ANSES asked, two years ago, the withdrawal of the octocrylene from solar creams. In question: the potential disruptive effects on health when it deteriorated in benzophenone, as well as the risks for the environment – it is not biodegradable and is toxic to the aquatic environment. But not all solar creams contain.
