• Sunscreen leaves cause for concern • All beliefs may be created equal Sunscreen leaves cause for concern Sunscreen slicks can be seen on the water at Poipu and no doubt there is damage to the reefs from chemicals like oxybenzone. To
• Sunscreen leaves cause for concern • All beliefs may be created equal
Sunscreen leaves cause for concern
Sunscreen slicks can be seen on the water at Poipu and no doubt there is damage to the reefs from chemicals like oxybenzone. To take care of the environment, we should use sunscreens like RAW Elements that use zinc oxide or titanium dioxide that do not contain harmful chemicals that cause damage.
Skin cancer rates have actually elevated since the widespread use of sunscreen. Sunscreen stops one from burning but contrary to popular belief, it does not prevent skin cancer.
There are three types of skin cancer, with basal and squamous being common but not life threatening. These two are caused from exposure to UVB light which causes burning. Sunscreen does prevent burning caused by UVA but does not protect one from UVA light which damages the deeper cells of the skin. Most sunscreens do not offer protection against UVA, the harmful, longer-wavelength UV light. UVA penetrates right through the outer skin — and through sunscreen — down to the melanocytes, the cells that become cancerous in melanoma cases. Only one third of sunscreen products sold in the US protect the skin from both UVB and UVA light.
With the rise in melanoma cases, there has also been rises in profits from sunscreen sales at a rate of $18 million in 1972 and $500 million in 1996. In 2014, it has risen astronomically to an $8.5 billion dollar industry!
Science has noted that melanoma has a 20-year lag time and so if sunscreen is protective, the melanoma rate should have started to level off by now but instead it’s climbing. In 1980, an American’s lifetime melanoma risk was 1 in 250. Today, it’s 1 in 84.
I have dark skin and am fortunate to not need sunscreen but if you do, consider using Shea butter or coconut oil which have about 6-8 SPF. Adding carrot seed or raspberry seed oil will get the rate up to 35 or 40 spf. Avocado oil is about 15 SPF. Get UV shirts and wear hats instead of covering yourself with questionable chemicals that could be harming you and your (our) environment.
Michaelle Edwards, Princeville
All beliefs may be created equal
Suffice it to say: “Belief” is a personal matter. “Evidence” is subject to interpretation. Absolute “proof” can be disputed in light of further information. So, let us be content with the personal choices and perspectives we choose to cling to. Let us “live and let live” and herald our pomposity about being “correct,” for lack of a better term.
No matter what: Beauty is still in the eye of the beholder; music is still a matter of personal preferences; some like their tea hot, some like it cold, and some like it either way, or both. That being said, might it be possible that the myriad of concepts about God, creation, the galaxy, the atom, space and stardust may all simply be the same song and dance being thought about and/or experienced in different ways? Ain’t life grand?
Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha
