With the toasty temperatures and the bright sun this weekend, many people tried to find some water or shade to stay cool.
For folks who have to be outside, sunscreen is a big part of the planning. But with so many options to choose from, what should you be looking for when shopping for sunscreen?
Affiliated Dermatology’s Dr. Jonathan Lavian says all sunscreens above SPF 30 have similar effects.
“It’s really important that you put on at least SPF 30 and reapply frequently that’s more important than a higher SPF,” Lavian said.
He recommends reapplying every hour because even waterproof sunscreen comes off.
“If you go home and wash your face or take a shower it comes off,” ASU Professor Paul Westerhoff said. “The same thing is happening whether it’s in a pool, in the ocean or tubing down the salt river.”
Westerhoff is the regent's professor and Fulton Chair of environmental engineering at Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. He was part of a research group studying sunscreen’s impact on the environment, like measuring chemicals in the Salt River.
“When people go tubing in the Salt River, we sit downstream in the morning and it’s really low and it goes up during the day and goes down at night. So these things are coming off people into the water,” Westerhoff said.
He says the majority of ingredients in sunscreen work towards optics and smell.
"Typical sunscreens might only contain five or 15 percent by weight of these sunblock agents,” Westerhoff said.
“Most sunscreens are similar in protecting against UVB rays which causes skin cancer, but there’s only one ingredient which protects against 100% of UVA rays which causes aging of the skin and wrinkles, and that's zinc oxide,” Lavian said.
Lavian says he recommends looking for zinc in your sunscreen’s ingredients if possible. He also says days in the sun add up, even if it doesn’t feel that way in your 20s and 30s.
“It’s all about cumulative sun damage,” Lavian said. “A lot of people in their 50s and 60s start wearing sunscreen and say ‘I wear sunscreen every day’ and are surprised when they have a skin cancer, but it's really all the sun exposure you get from a young age.”
And even when seasons change and temperatures dip back into double digits, sunscreen is still a must
“One hour of sun exposure in the winter is about the same as 30 minutes in the summer,” Lavian said. “So just because you’re outside in the winter all day doesn't mean you can't get burned and you're not at risk for skin cancer.”
