No, sunscreen will not give you skin cancer

Social media positions have recently appeared, arguing that the application of sunscreen has been reported to increase the risk of skin cancer. Although UV radiation (UV) is the main cause of melanomas and sunscreen helps protect the skin by filtering UV rays, these positions claim that the sunscreen itself is damaged, as reported by DW.

“It is unquestionable that countries that use the most sunscreen have the highest incidence of skin cancer,” X’s user said in a position with about 60,000 fans. “And the more sunscreen they use, the greater the dominance.” There are also Tiktok videos warning of sunscreen.

“There is no scientific evidence to support the use of the use of sunscreen with a higher risk of cancer,” said Brittany Schaefer, public information officer with the Connecticut Ministry of Public Health on DW.

The publication X gave the graph to the CTR tumor register (CTR), but Schaefer says he was inaccurate.

“The original cancer incidence data probably came from the tumor CT registry decades ago, but not from the additional text frames on sunscreen.

But why is the number of world cases of skin cancer rising, though more and more people are using sunscreen? A study in various countries since December 2023 involved in scientists from the US, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary have examined five cases to reach the bottom.

According to the study, the possible reasons for misunderstandings and myths about connecting the risk of skin cancer and sun protection include access to better diagnostic and therapeutic methods, outdated scientific studies, irregular use of sunscreen and climate change.

Global impact rates

Increasing awareness of the risk of skin cancer in both patients and doctors has led to an increase in reports of reference and documentation. In contrast to the highest incidence of skin cancer worldwide, the mortality rate has been reduced due to better therapeutic options, says the International Research Service of the World Health Organization for cancer.

According to the World Cancer Research Fund, Australia had the highest incidence of new cases of 2022: 37 new cases of skin cancer per 100,000 people per year, followed by Denmark (31.1), Norway (30.6), New Zealand (29.8).

The US first occupied 101,388 cases in terms of the total number of skin cancer cases in 2022, while Germany took second place with 21,976 cases of skin cancer, with an identical occurrence of 16.5.

Concerning the number of skin cancer deaths in 2022, the US again took the lead with 7,368 deaths, while Germany took fourth place with 3,303 cases behind China and Russia. The following graph also shows that a high rate of skin cancer does not necessarily correspond to a higher mortality rate.

Another reason for increasing skin cancer rates could also be the fact that people spend more time out in the sun. Even if they applied sunscreen, this was not a guarantee that they used it as it was intended to protect their skin.

The lack of today’s scientific studies further adds to the problem of enhancing outdated narratives. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began to regulate only sunscreen in 2011. All previous studies considering the use of sunscreen and the development of melanoma were likely to be carried out with products that did not provide the same level of protection as those on the market.