Here’s what to know before prepping your skin for some summer fun about which products may be affected.
The following written content by Karen Pallarito
Heads up before you prep your skin for the beach this holiday weekend. An independent laboratory is calling on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a recall after detecting benzene, a known human carcinogen, in 78 batches of sunscreen and after-sun products.
In a “citizen petition” filed May 24, Valisure LLC said it analyzed 294 unique batches of sunscreen and after-sun products from 69 brands. (Note: a “batch” is different than a “product” as a whole—samples were taken from specific bottles of products, and contamination doesn’t necessarily mean all products of the same kind contain benzene.)
Out of all 294 unique batches, 78 batches—or 27%—were found to contain detectable levels of benzene, with some batches containing up to three times the 2 parts per million (ppm) upper limit on benzene that the FDA allows under special circumstances, according to the lab.
Going deeper, Valisure found that 40 of those batches with detectable levels of benzene contained so much of the cancer-causing chemical that the products “should be recalled.” The highest level of benzene—6.26 ppm—was detected in a batch of Neutrogena’s Ultra Sheer Weightless Sunscreen Spray, SPF 100. Two different batches of the same sunscreen, each with an SPF of 70, contained 5.96 and 5.76 ppm of the chemical. Sun Bum’s Cool Down Gel contained the next highest amount, at 5.33 ppm.
The full “citizen petition” posted on Valisure’s website, lists all 294 product batches tested by the company—including all 78 batches that tested positive for detectable levels of benzene, and the remaining batches that had “no detectable levels of benzene.” Read more from Health.
