By
Karen Hsu, The Boston Globe
It wasn't all that long ago that ``sunscreen'' was called suntan
lotion. The older lotions offered some protection but not much.
Not only do today's sunscreens contain more effective chemicals
to deflect or absorb the sun's rays, they are available in an
array of products like moisturizers, cosmetics, and baby lotion.
Dr.
Barbara Gilchrest, chair of the dermatology department at Boston
University School of Medicine, says these products are not gimmicks
-- they really do work.
``I
recommend them to all my patients and friends,'' Gilchrest said.
They
can be worn every day, whether or not a person goes out in the
sun.'' she added. ``If you ask people whether they get sun, many
will say no. But everybody probably gets at least a good half
hour, even when they spend most of the time in the office. That
cumulative exposure probably does a lot of damage.''
But
are those products enough?
Yes, but only if you spend most of your time indoors, Gilchrest
said. For a day of beachcombing, people should use sunscreen,
she noted.
Indeed,
it's the fair-skinned office worker who has intense, intermittent
exposure on weekends and travels to sunny beaches for mid-winter
holidays who is most at risk for melanoma, the most serious form
of skin cancer, Gilchrest said.
That's why melanomas most commonly appear on skin that's not ordinarily
exposed to the sun, like backs for men and lower legs in women.
Michael Morley, 35, who spends most of his time in an office,
not only uses sunscreen on a regular basis but takes other precautions,
such as staying out of the sun during peak sunburning hours mid-day
and wearing tightly-woven T-shirts.
It
all started nearly three months ago when his father had a melanoma
tumor removed.
``I
got so paranoid. I started looking at every freckle,'' said Morley,
who lives near the water, in Scituate.
But
even before then, he knew he couldn't stay in the sun.
``I
knew I would be red or white, '' said Morley, adding, ``I would
rather be white.''
He
also is careful about his two children. ``By the time they are
done playing, they are covered with sunscreen and sand.''
Some
sunscreens are labeled as ``sunblocks,'' but the Food and Drug
Administration recently banned the use of the term starting in
2001 because no product blocks 100 percent of ultraviolet rays.
Some tanning occurs even when using high SPF products. Some of
the lotions have been called sunblocks because they include either
zinc oxide or titanium oxide, both of which deflect the sun's
rays.
The
FDA also called for products to be labeled at a cap of SPF 30
because it is difficult to tell if there is an increased benefit
to the higher SPF products.
Although
many lotions are labeled ``broad spectrum,'' meaning that they
screen out UVA and UVB rays, doctors point out that there is no
way to know if this is true because there is no standardized test
for broad-spectrum products.
Zinc
and titanium oxide are good at filtering out UVA. Other UVA-filtering
ingredients include oxybenzone and avobenzone, also known as Parsol
1789.
The
first sunscreens used para-amino benzoic acid (PABA), but the
ingredient is no longer used because it was found to be a possible
carcinogen.
However,
sunscreen use will never be the sole answer to reducing the rate
of melanoma.
``When
they say they use it, did they reapply if that was needed? Was
it on thick enough?'' said Dr. Arthur Sober, associate chief of
dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Ideally, people should try to stay out of the sun; sunscreen doesn't
block all of the sun's ultraviolet rays and people may get a false
sense of security from wearing it, he said.
``I
may know that I can't stay outside for 15 minutes without getting
burned. But then I put on sunscreen and I can stay out for four
hours and not feel bad. But over that period, I get more UV exposure,''
said Sober.
Some
manufacturers claim that their ``sunblock fabrics'' are equivalent
to wearing an SPF 30 sunscreen, but Consumer Reports found that
some regular clothing, like Hanes Beefy-T, are just as good at
screening out UV rays.
And
the UV-blocking umbrellas? Probably a marketing gimmick.
