YOUR GUIDE TO SURVIVING SUMMER
Sunburn and bug bites are familiar seasonal woes. So do your homework when buying the remedies for them.
There’s science and then there’s everything else. Despite consumers’ feelings of product loyalty, corporate spin, common knowledge, wishful thinking and personal biases, scientific research proves that some sun and insect products work better than others. Some don’t work at all.
Consumer advocacy groups give manufacturers of some sunscreens and insect repellents low grades in labeling accuracy. Some sunscreens failed when they got wet or didn’t deliver what the labels promised. Some insect repellents actually attracted bugs.
This Memorial Day weekend, while slathering on the sun and bug oils, consider the science behind the label claims.
Last week, Consumer Reports, an independent nonprofit consumer advocacy magazine, published a scathing online update of sunscreen labeling that found nearly half of 60 products tested in 2016 violated Food and Drug Administration accuracy requirements for ratings of sun protection factor, or SPF.
“For four years straight, [we] found that many sunscreens in our tests fall short,” said the report. “The odds are good that your sunscreen may not deliver the SPF it promises on the label.”
Among mineral sunscreens promoted as “natural,” just 26 percent met SPF label claims. Forty-three percent of lotions, sprays and sticks with SPF ratings of 30 or higher — the minimum recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology — did not provide advertised protection. Three showed an actual SPF of less than 15.
“That’s not enough sun protection,” according to the study, “and it could leave you vulnerable to sunburn and possible long-term skin damage, such as wrinkles or skin cancer.”
Products that tested well included La Roche-Posay’s
in 2016 the virus could infect as many as 4 million people in South, Central and North America. Seventeen cases documented in Pennsylvania since January involved people who were probably infected in South or Central America. Three Zika cases were confirmed in Allegheny County, where mosquito surveillance is being increased and health workers are scouring wetlands, stagnant pools and discarded automobile tires for two mosquito species capable of carrying Zika.
Mosquitoes are rightly blamed for spreading more than a dozen potentially fatal diseases, but no one will call you squeamish if you just want to avoid itchy mosquito bite bumps. In a recent reissue of its latest rating of insect repellent effectiveness, Consumer Reports highlighted three products seen as most effective in combating Zika-carrying mosquitoes: Sawyer Fisherman’s Formula Picaridin, Natrapel 8 Hour and Off Deepwoods VIII.
The best repellents, said the magazine, contained 25 percent DEET or 20 percent picaridin. Higher levels of the active ingredients did not markedly improve effectiveness. Some of the least protective repellents were made from natural plant oils that attract insects. But one DEET-free, plant-based product, Repel Lemon Eucalyptus, kept its label promise of repelling mosquitoes for six hours and got a Consumer Reports rating of “excellent.”
Some items sold as insect repellents belong in the Snake Oil Hall of Shame. The Federal Trade Commission recently issued a warning about Viatek Consumer Products Group's Mosquito Shield Bands. The company claims the wristbands create a “vapor barrier” of 5 feet and can provide 96 to 120 hours of protection. But the FTC alleged the company “did not have competent and reliable scientific evidence to back up these claims.”