Updates About Carcinogenic Benzene in Sunscreens

A few weeks ago I wrote about Valisure (an online pharmacy that tests every batch of medication it sells), finding unacceptable levels of benzene—a human carcinogen.

This is a follow up regarding that, because some brands were voluntarily recalled by Johnson & Johnson. FDA is currently investigating, trying to find out the root cause of this. Presently, there is no FDA recall.

https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/johnson-johnson-consumer-inc-issues-voluntary-recall-specific-neutrogenar-and-aveenor-aerosol

I don’t know if you saw any updates about this topic in the news, but here I included a few more links. Many specialists say there is no safe level of benzene in sunscreens.

https://www.cnet.com/health/personal-care/lab-asks-fda-to-recall-40-batches-of-sunscreen-from-neutrogena-banana-boat-and-more/

You may see some other comments stating that we’re exposed to benzene anyway from sources such as vehicle exhaust, the air we breathe when pumping gas in our cars, through candle burning, and more.

Hold on a second, this exposure is not a case when we can say the more we get, the better off we are! There is no reason to have additional sources.

We should avoid all the benzene exposure the best we can. Sunscreens were not meant to have benzene in them and they likely had it for a while, not just this summer.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/17/health/sunscreen-recall-cancer-wellness/index.html

We need to protect ourselves from skin damages associated with sun exposure and luckily there are many other products free of this carcinogenic toxin and safer for many other reasons. You can check out this guide https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/