Sunscreens have become essential due to the consumer shift from luxury personal care products to daily essentials, especially in India’s burgeoning skincare market. As trends for sun protection become mainstream, sunscreen becomes an everyday staple in handbags, office drawers, and morning routines. However, in the race to meet the increase in customer demand, products on the sunscreen shelf are becoming cluttered with marketing efforts that talk about SPF levels, all-day protection, and ‘additional skincare’ benefits.
Beneath the shiny labels and marketing claims, there are serious issues. Sunscreens are not created equally. There are questionable ingredient lists and regulatory compliance issues. The emerging evidence suggests a number of formulations may pose more risk than benefit to skin health and the ecosystem.
Understanding these often-ignored or overlooked risks is necessary when it comes to determining the safety and quality of a sunscreen as shared by Dr Saurabh Arora, Managing Director, Auriga Research.
The SPF Illusion: Misleading Numbers, Real Consequences
One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of sunscreen is the SPF, or Sun Protection Factor, label emblazoned on the packaging and this is particularly true when it comes to the assumption that higher numbers mean better protection. In fact, the nature of the truth is far more complex and disturbing.
There are many products in the Indian market with SPF ratings of 50, 70, or even 100. Unfortunately, many of these products haven’t undergone the necessary testing on human volunteers using ASTM methods meeting the ISO standards that establish the gold standard for verifying SPF. Testing is expensive and takes time, so many emerging and smaller brands completely avoid it.
In this case, a sunscreen of SPF 60 may provide the protection of SPF 20, or possibly none. This lack of responsibility potentially creates a serious health hazard. Consumers believe they are shielded from damaging UV rays, while their skin is experiencing sunburn, pigmentation, premature aging and long term may be at risk for skin cancer. SPF claims that are not substantiated by scientific evidence create false confidence in the consumer.
Regulatory Gaps and Toxic Contaminants
In India, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act requires compliance of all cosmetic products, which includes sunscreens, to safety and quality standards as prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which includes tests for microbial contamination, heavy metals, toxic chemicals, and product stability given its shelf life. Despite being subject to these standards then it is fair to say there are many brands in the market that are ignoring and/or unaware of their legal obligations.
Shockingly, recent reports from Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) revealed that some of the cosmetics contained high levels of mercury, a dangerous heavy metal. Mercury is banned in cosmetics in much of the world and can be absorbed by the skin, threatening damage to the kidneys, nervous system, and other organs when exposed over a long enough period of time.
The majority of products remain unexamined for hazardous contaminants, because most companies do not periodically batch-by-batch testing, which is typical practice by larger brands. Non-tested products can also be vulnerable to microbial contamination, such as harmful bacteria and fungi, that can cause infections when applied to compromised or sensitive skin.
Problematic Ingredients and Outdated Formulations
Chemical UV filters are the mainstay for most sunscreens as they block and/or absorb ultraviolet radiation. While they are approved for cosmetic use, we must look at their safety in terms of concentration, stability and context.
Sunscreen products in India frequently contain heap loads of substances such as oxybenzone, homosalate, and octocrylene that alarm many in the scientific community. Oxybenzone has been correlated with endocrine disruption and allergic skin reactions. In another product, para-aminobenzoic acid, was prevalent but it is gone from much of the mass-market in other countries due to this skin irritation. Yet its still in some sunscreens in India.
The issue is not just the presence of these ingredients, but use levels. If proper testing and formulation monitoring have not occurred, these chemicals may be supplied at levels higher than allowed at unsafe levels or in combination with other unstable chemicals that render a tolerable ingredient ingredient into something that’s actively dangerous to human health.
Customers often don’t have detailed information on the strength of the ingredients or the results from safety testing, meaning that many formulations are opaque to their chemical makeup and reasoning for the stated effectiveness. This creates a situation where ingredients that are safe at regulated levels may become unsafe when misapplied.
Environmental Impact: Sunscreens and Marine Toxicity
Sunscreens don’t just impact the skin. Effects also reach our natural environment. There is growing scientific evidence that some ingredients found in sunscreens can harm ecosystems on a global scale.
Oxybenzone and octinoxate chemicals that have been washed off into bodies of water during swimming or bathing has become linked to coral bleaching and interference with marine organisms. Since chemicals such as oxybenzone and octinoxate are often washed off and accumulate in ocean water which can be harmful to coral reefs and aquatic organisms. Nanoparticles and non-biodegradable fillers within sunscreens could waste freshwater and contribute to pollution, ultimately harming the environment on a biodiversity scale in the longer term.
There is a multi-national buzz around “reef-safe” or “reef-friendly” sunscreen. These contain ingredients that do not kill coral or the marine environment. The idea of reef-safe sunscreen is new to India, but awareness is fast growing about the need to consider the environment and the consumer’s responsible self-skin care.
Formulations should ideally be developed to protect the individual consumers who use products as well as the environment that surrounds them. Brands need to consider the life cycle of their products and what happens to them in nature after the user is done with them.
The Need for Safer Sunscreens and Accountability
As the sunscreen market grows, ensuring safety must be shared responsibility. The presence of sunscreens with little regulation, mislabeled SPF values, toxic chemicals, and environmental harm illustrates the urgent need for better standards and increased accountability.
Producers will need to prioritize full efficacy and safety testing for both consumers: this will always mean checking SPF efficacy via ISO standards, compliance with BIS regulations, testing for contaminants on each batch, and testing full formulations not only for skin compatibility upon application also long-term shape and composition on the eco-system.
Regulatory agencies also play an important role in their oversight of the market, communication of safety advisories, and education of both manufacturers and consumers as to a product’s compliance with safety standards.
