An Instagram reel claims that sunscreens are dangerous, citing a 2019 FDA report to argue that their chemicals, including oxybenzone, penetrate the bloodstream after just one use, exceed safety standards, and may increase skin cancer risk, particularly melanoma.

The video has garnered significant traction with 25 million views and 330,560 likes. 

“Don’t use sunscreens … In May of 2019, the FDA issued a report saying that sunscreen chemicals, when used just one day, penetrated the bloodstream, reaching levels that exceeded FDA standards. One ingredient, oxybenzone, reached that level, exceeding the standards after only two hours of use,” the speaker can be heard saying adding these chemicals change your complex metabolic machinery,  put a load on liver and kidneys, and make you sick. 

“The more sunscreen we use, the more skin cancer we can get,” the creator says. 

“Do you suppose there may be a cause-and-effect relationship?” he asks and then goes on to state that the sales of sunscreens have gone up by 38 times in the last thirty years. “The incidence of the most dangerous kind of skin cancer, melanoma, has doubled since 1982,” he adds.

Can sunscreen lead to cancer? We fact-check

Claim 1: FDA Report shows sunscreen chemicals penetrate bloodstream after one use. One should stop using sunscreen.

Fact: Partially true, but misleading. In May 2019, the FDA published a pilot study, finding that chemicals like oxybenzone, avobenzone, octocrylene, and ecamsule in sunscreens can enter the bloodstream after a single application. During the study, over the course of four days, 24 volunteers applied sunscreen to 75% of their bodies four times a day. Oxybenzone concentrations 50–100 times higher than other chemicals were found within two hours, exceeding the FDA’s standard limit.

However, the FDA and experts, including the American Academy of Dermatology, stress this absorption doesn’t prove harm. The study aims to prompt more research, not to declare sunscreens unsafe. The study authors and the FDA still recommend that people should continue to use sunscreen to protect themselves from the sun.

Claim 2: Sunscreen chemicals harm livers and kidneys, and can cause cancer

Fact: Inconclusive scientific evidence.  The FDA study also found that sunscreen leaches up to 360 times more toxic chemicals into the blood than the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) allows, raising risks for liver and kidney failure. Out of the six chemicals—oxybenzone, octocrylene, avobenzone, homosalate, octisalate, and octinoxate—the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) found that all of the chemicals had higher concentrations in the blood than the FDA’s threshold of 0.5 nanograms (ng) per milliliter (mL) of blood plasma. 

However, the FDA suggested further industry testing to determine the safety and effect of systemic exposure of sunscreen ingredients. Besides, there is no conclusive evidence to show that sunscreen causes cancer.