Sunscreen has become necessary due to consumer changes for daily essential commodities from luxury individual care products, especially in India’s Burning Skincare Market. For example, for the protection of the sun, trends become mainstream, sunscreen handbags, office drawers and morning routines become a daily staple. However, in the race to meet the growth in customer’s demand, products are disorganized with product marketing efforts on the sunscreen shelf which talks about SPF level, full day’s safety and ‘additional skincare’ benefits.
Below shiny labels and marketing claims, there are serious issues. Sunscreen are not made evenly. Suspected components are list and regulatory compliance issues. Emerging evidence suggests that many yogas can be more risk than the benefits of skin health and ecosystems.
These often-it is necessary to understand or unseen risks when it comes to determine the protection and quality of a sunscreen, as Dr. Saurabh Arora is shared by Managing Director, Auraga Research.
SPF confusion: misleading number, real results
One of the most commonly misunderstanding aspects of sunscreen is SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, is the label on the packaging and it is especially true when it comes to the assumption that high number means better protection. In fact, the nature of truth is far more complex and disturbing.
There are many products in the Indian market with SPF ratings of 50, 70 or 100. Unfortunately, many of these products have not conducted the necessary tests on human volunteers using ASTM methods that meet ISO standards setting gold standard to verify SPF. The test is expensive and takes time, so many emerging and small brands completely avoid it.
In this case, a sunscreen of SPF 60 can provide security of SPF 20, or possibly no one. This lack of responsibility potentially pose a serious health threat. Consumers believe that they are preserved by damaging UV rays, while their skin is experiencing sunburn, pigmentation, premature aging and long -term, skin cancer may be risk for cancer. SPF claims that scientific evidence is not confirmed, creating wrong confidence in the consumer.
Regulatory gap and toxic contaminant
In India, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act requires compliance with all cosmetic products, including sunscreen, determined by the Bureau of Standards (BIS) as security and quality standards, including microbial contamination, heavy metals, toxic chemicals and testing for product stability. Despite being subject to these standards, it is appropriate to say that there are many brands in the market which are ignored and/or unknown to their legal obligations.
The surprising thing is that recent reports by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) showed that some cosmetics included high levels of mercury, a dangerous heavy metal. Mercury is restricted in cosmetics in most parts of the world and can be absorbed by the skin, threatening damage to kidney, nervous system, and other organs when exposed over a long period of time.
Most products remain unclear for dangerous contaminants, as most companies do not periodically conduct batch-batch tests, which are specific exercises by large brands. Non-tested products can also be unsafe for microbial contamination, such as harmful bacteria and fungi, which can cause infection when compromise or applied to sensitive skin.
Dived ingredients and old yoga
Chemical UV filters are the main basis for most sunscreen as they absorb blocks and/or ultraviolet radiation. While they are approved for cosmetic use, we should look at their safety in terms of concentration, stability and reference.
Sunscreen products in India often contain piles of substances such as oxybenzone, homosalat, and octocrillin that have many alarms in the scientific community. Oxybenzone is correlated with endocrine disintegration and allergic skin reactions. In another product, para-aminobenzoic acid was prevalent, but it has gone much more than mass-market in other countries due to skin irritation. Nevertheless, some sunscreen in India is still there.
The issue is not only the presence of these ingredients, but uses levels. If proper testing and formulating monitoring is not done, these chemicals can be supplied at a higher levels at the unprotected levels or with other unstable chemicals that do something to a tolerant component component that is actively dangerous to human health.
Customers often do not have detailed information about the results from the strength or safety testing of the components, which means that many formulations are opaque for their chemical makeup and argue for the prescribed effectiveness. This creates a condition where materials that are safe at regulated levels can be unsafe when wrong.
Environmental Effects: Sunscreen and Marine toxicity
Sunscreens do not just affect the skin. Effects also reach our natural environment. Such scientific evidence is increasing that some material found in sunscreen can damage the ecosystem globally.
Oxybenzone and octinoxet chemicals are washed into the body of water during swimming or bathing, associated with coral bleaching and intervention with marine organisms. Since chemicals such as oxybenzone and octinoxet are often washed and deposited in sea water which can be harmful to coral reefs and aquatic organisms. Nanops up and non-biodigradeble filters within sunscreen can ruin freshwater and contribute to pollution, eventually damaging the environment on biodiversity scale over a long term.
There is a multi-national discussion around the “Reef-Sef” or “Reef-friendly” sunscreen. They contain elements that do not kill coral or sea environment. The idea of Reef-Saf Sunscreen is new to India, but awareness is increasing rapidly about the need to consider the environment and consumer responsible self-conscious care.
Formulations should ideally be developed to protect individual consumers that use the environment along with products that surround them. Brands need to consider the life cycle of their products and what happens to them in nature after the user is with them.
Need safe sunscreen and accountability
Security should be shared to ensure that the sunscreen market grows. The presence of sunscreen with little regulation, wrong SPF values, toxic chemicals and environmental damage reflects the immediate requirement of better standards and increased accountability.
Producers will need to prioritize full efficacy and safety tests for both consumers: this means always checking SPF efficacy through ISO standards, compliance with BIS rules, tests for contaminated materials on each batch, and testing full yogas for skin compatibility not only on applications, and tested for long-term size and testing for long-term size and composition.
Regulatory agencies also play an important role in the market’s communication of their inspection, security advice, and the education of both manufacturers and consumers, compliance with the product with safety standards.
