Friends of the Earth asked more than 120 sunscreen manufacturers to describe their companies’ policies regarding nanotechnology and whether their products contain nanoparticles, but the vast majority of manufacturers refused.  This underscores the challenge that consumers face when trying to determine if their sunscreens are safe, which is why FDA regulation and labeling requirements are urgently needed.

In the meantime, Friends of the Earth has compiled a guide to alert consumers to the risks that may come from sunscreens with nanoparticles and a list of nine sunscreen brands that are nano free.  To learn more about nanomaterials in sunscreens, and how to limit your risk of exposure, visit our guide.

Links:

Click here for the full text of the report with more information about the damage nanoparticles could cause. For more information on the findings of the report, please contact Health and Environment Campaigner Ian Illuminato at iilluminato@foe.org or 202-783-7400.

Also, you can click here for a standalone list of the sunscreens that do, don’t or may contain nanoparticles.

You can also listen to an audio recording of Illuminato and Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder discussing the consumer guide.  Blackwelder speaks first, Illuminato second.  The recording is available here.

We asked 128 cosmetics companies whether they were using nanotechnology, which is largely untested and may pose real dangers to human health, in making their skin products. See a copy of the letter we sent them here, and our follow-up letters here and here.

These are the only nine who confirmed that they have kept nanoparticles out of their products and their customers out of harm:

• Alba Botanica
• Allergan
• Aubrey Botanics
• Avalon Organics
• Black Opal
• Blistex
• Chattem, Inc. — Bullfrog
• Lakeview Laboratories — Tatoo Goo
• Schwarzkopf & Henkel

And please remember to sign Friends of the Earth’s petition calling on the Food and Drug Administration to introduce sensible rules for testing nanotechnology in order to protect consumers, workers, and the environment.

Previous work on nanotechnology:

A citizen’s petition signed by Friends of the Earth and seven other groups calling for the Food and Drug Administration to adopt sensible principles for testing the safety of nanoparticles.

Our last major report on the technology’s potential health and environmental risks, Nanomaterials, Sunscreens and Cosmetics: Small Ingredients, Big Risks

Friends of the Earth’s reaction to a ruling by the FDA that rejected calls for products containing nanoparticles to be specially labeled and for the particles to be subject to special regulations.

Reprinted from Friends of the Earth.