This is an episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, which features candid conversations about how today’s trends are shaping the future of the beauty and wellness industries. More from the series →
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If you’ve ever stocked up on sunscreen at a Parisian pharmacy, or heard TikTokers wax poetic about the superiority of Korean SPF, you may have found yourself wondering why American formulas are so far behind their international counterparts.
This week, with the help of board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon Dr. Jane Yoo, and the Melanoma Research Foundation’s director of advocacy, Kim Wezik, MPH, the Glossy Beauty Podcast sought to answer this question — and even simpler ones you may have wondered about — like, what does UVA and UVB mean on a bottle of SPF? And what, even, is a filter?
In the United States, sunscreen is a minefield. That’s because here, it is regulated as a drug, whereas in most of the world, it is a cosmetic product, like a moisturizer. “The number of [sun] filters in the United States has actually decreased over time. There are only nine available filters in the United States, including zinc oxide and titanium dioxide,” said Dr. Yoo.
In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Dr. Yoo and Wezik chat with Glossy podcast co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner about how the U.S. wound up so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to sunscreen, how the Melanoma Research Foundation is working with congress to try to make progress in the field, and what’s at stake.
But first, co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen discuss some of the week’s biggest beauty news, including TSG Group’s acquisition of Chriselle Lim’s Phlur, which was relaunched by Ben Bennett’s incubator, The Center, in 2022. They also discuss a recent controversy surrounding the introduction of an AI fragrance influencer “launched” by another incubator, Slate Brands. The influencer’s profile has since been deleted. And finally, they discuss recent layoffs at Shiseido — the parent company of Drunk Elephant, Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, Nars, and several fragrance licenses including Tory Burch and Narciso Rodriguez — as well as at Walmart.
Below are highlights from the episode, which have been lightly edited for clarity.
The cost of melanoma
Wezik: “It’s my job to work with policy makers such as members of Congress and talk to them about the needs of the patient community. Right now, that’s been pretty tied to the introduction of the Safe Sunscreen Standards Act. Back in November, the FDA had a hearing on the Over-the-Counter (OTC) Monograph Drug User Fee Act (OMUFA) Reauthorization — that’s reauthorized every five years. … Fast forward to April, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing back that [basically said], ‘We want to do something about sunscreen.’ I testified before that committee with the patient perspective, again, saying this is pretty inexcusable that we haven’t had a new filter approved since the ‘90s. Melanoma rates have only gone up. This is a disease that costs over $8 billion a year, and that statistic is probably old. It’s a very preventable cancer. We do not have to see patients diagnosed with late-stage melanoma. We can prevent melanoma — we know it’s tied to exposure to UV radiation, and we can’t say that with very many cancers, but we can say that about skin cancer. So, how do we prevent skin cancer? Well, it’s unsafe behaviors. It’s wearing your sunscreen. It’s avoiding the sun during the hottest part of the day. It’s wearing some protective clothing.”
Patient education and combating misinformation
Dr. Yoo: “There are so many patients who are on TikTok, and there’s so much misinformation saying [that] sunscreen is cancerous even. And so you have people asking all these questions about sunscreen and not wearing a sunscreen, using beef tallow and other things. And you’re like, ‘What in the world?’ But I think you just have to educate them [about] what the science says and what it shows. And sometimes, that’s meeting the patient where they are, right? … Make the bar really low for them, even getting sun-protective hats or eyewear. UPF clothing is great, especially for little kids — under the age of six months, they should just be protected by clothing and hats. Reiterating the [science] to people is the only way to be able to fight all this backlash.”
The difference between sunscreen in the U.S. and abroad
Dr. Yoo: “Everywhere else has more than 30 filters. … We are just so, so far behind, and the FDA is rejecting all sorts of data. They really insist on animal studies taking place, and this is not the case in other countries. The other sunscreen [filters], as you can imagine, have been approved in Europe, in Asia and in Australia for more than 10 years without any issue, so how is it that we still have to keep producing safety data with animal studies for the FDA?”
Public health, in the RFK era
Wezik: “It is a very challenging environment to be a public health professional when the Secretary of Health and Human Services [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has been so vocal [in a way that has made it] really challenging to promote public health in a way that we know is evidence-based. There is concern that, with him at the helm, we will see an increased rate [of melanoma]. None of this exists in a vacuum. You know, we’re here talking about sunscreen. Meanwhile, the CDC cancer prevention programs were eliminated in the President’s budget proposal to Congress, and that includes the skin-cancer prevention program. So, here we are trying to fight skin cancer with one tool, and we’ve lost another. So, from our perspective, it is very challenging, and we’re hopeful that we’re not going to lose yet another opportunity to combat this disease. Because, from our perspective, this is a cancer prevention tool. And, as much as we, and I personally, am into the anti-aging aspects of sunscreen, cancer prevention is certainly first and foremost in my mind. And I think it’s important to center that when we’re talking to lawmakers.”
