RASCOE: That's a long time. And I would imagine that is tough from a business standpoint.
FRIEDMAN: The sunscreen market's been sort of stuck.
PARADIS: So for more than one reason, innovation in the sunscreen market has been challenging. But so far at least, it's a bipartisan issue. It's a priority listed in the Make America Healthy Again - or MAHA - Strategy Report and also elevated by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like, here she is in a social media video from 2023.
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ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: U.S. sunscreens are far behind the rest of the world. I was in South Korea earlier this year, and it is so clear how far advanced the rest of the world is on sunscreen. And we deserve better...
PARADIS: There was another attempt to change the situation a few years ago. But at least for bemotrizinol, things didn't change much until 2020, when Congress passed the CARES Act. Do you remember that?
RASCOE: I've tried to block a lot of that out of my head, but I think yes. This was the big coronavirus relief package, and people got those COVID relief checks?
PARADIS: Yeah. I remember that, too. But also, the CARES Act changed the way many over-the-counter drugs are regulated in the United States, including sunscreens. It basically helped streamline the application process, and now bemotrizinol is finally about to hit the U.S. market.
FRIEDMAN: And it is a win. It is an achievement for public health that we have this new filter. But at the end of the day, the U.S. still lags behind other countries like the EU when it comes to options.
RASCOE: When we come back, another aspect of sunscreen and public health - the conversation on skin color and SPF.
ADAMSON: It was all white people in the Australian study.
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RASCOE: We'll be right back.
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RASCOE: We're back with The Sunday Story. I'm with Justine Paradis of New Hampshire Public Radio. She recently reported a deep dive on sunscreen.
PARADIS: Ayesha, remember how earlier I said that sunscreen may seem ordinary, but it's actually kind of high-tech and awesome?
RASCOE: Yes. I remember that.
PARADIS: Well, it's also imperfect. And to explain this, let's look at one of the most basic pieces of information on the bottle - SPF. Do you know what SPF stands for?
RASCOE: I do not. I'll be honest about that as well. Something about the sun, I would think (laughter).
PARADIS: Absolutely. Yeah. It stands for sun protection factor. So if you got an SPF of 30, in theory, it's saying that it offers you 30 times the amount of time until you get a sunburn as opposed to if you were wearing nothing. Does that make sense?
RASCOE: That does make sense. I did not think it meant that. I thought it meant, like, the amount of rays blocked (laughter) from the sun or something about the UV rays. But that - this also makes sense.
PARADIS: It's confusing, but SPF is a super imperfect measurement. And to explain why, let's journey to the shores of Australia, fall 2025, where an Australian consumer watchdog group called CHOICE decided to test the SPF claims of sunscreen in the country - 20 widely available products from brands like Neutrogena, La Roche-Posay, Cancer Council, Banana Boat. And 16 of those 20 products fell short of what they advertised.
RASCOE: Sixteen out of 20? I mean, that sounds like a lot of misinformation.
PARADIS: These were all sunscreens advertised to be SPF 50 or above. But they came in all over the place - like, in the 40s, 30s, 20s and lower. Like, one even tested at an SPF of 4.
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RASCOE: Four? Like, how could that happen? Like, that's not even close to what they advertise.
PARADIS: I know. And I think that there are a few reasons that might have contributed. One of them is how SPF is tested in the first place. So the SPF of a sunscreen is determined by the in vivo test. So that's on human skin in a lab. They put sunscreen on one part of someone's body and no sunscreen on another. They expose both parts to UV radiation, and then they see how long it takes their skin to burn.
FRIEDMAN: And then they roughly measure redness. So it's a very subjective measure.
