Love your skin, but buyer beware

Anew study showing New Zealand has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world has confirmed the need for sunscreen standards to be introduced and sunbeds to be banned, Consumer NZ says.

Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting Kiwis. The 2018 Skin Cancer Index says New Zealand has nearly 2500 new cases of melanoma every year.

It is recommended slopping on the sunscreen is one way to protect ourselves from sunburn. Despite this, New Zealand classifies sunscreens as cosmetics, and Consumer NZ says this ruling misses the mark when it comes to protecting people from the sun’s harmful rays. Our test found some natural sunscreens only provided low protection. One didn’t meet high protection or broad spectrum claims. Sue Chetwin Consumer NZ

The organisation’s chief executive, Sue Chetwin, says they tested 20 sunscreens last year against the Australia/New Zealand standard and only nine met their SPF label claim and the requirements for broadspectrum protection.

‘‘Our test found some natural sunscreens only provided low protection,’’ Chetwin says.

‘‘One didn’t meet high protection or broad spectrum claims and two companies – including one big brand – provided test certificates for similar but not identical sunscreens.’’

Sunscreens can be sold in New Zealand without being tested because the sunscreen standard is voluntary here.

Using a sunbed also increases the risk of getting skin cancer. According to the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, using a sunbed before age 30 increases the risk of melanoma by 75 per cent.

Like sunscreens, compliance with the sunbed standard is voluntary.

Consumer NZ has been mystery-shopping sunbed operators for more than a decade and Chetwin says their latest survey, in February, confirmed ongoing ‘‘poor practices’’ in the industry.

This included two operators who allowed a person under 18 to have a sunbed and six operators who allowed a person with fair skin to have a sunbed.

Chetwin says existing regulation isn’t providing sufficient consumer protection and it’s time the government made the sunscreen standard mandatory and banned sunbeds.

She notes these measures are already in place in Australia.

Sunscreens promise to provide protection from the sun’s harmful rays but fewer than half of those tested by Consumer NZ last year met the their SPF label claim.