UVA Reform: It’s Not PDQ

By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
NYT

AS summer begins, Americans are buying up sunscreen, confident that applying it diligently will protect them from the rays that can lead to skin cancer, sunburn and wrinkles.

But depending on the product, they may be wrong. The SPF, or sun protection factor, tells people how effective a sunscreen is at blocking ultraviolet B rays, the kind that cause five-alarm sunburns. But there is no similar gauge for ultraviolet A rays, which tans skin but also can cause cancer and wrinkles. More often than not, product labels are of little help in this department.

There is good news and bad news on the ultraviolet A front. On the plus side, the Food and Drug Administration is considering a set of guidelines for sunscreen that would set up a four-star system for effectiveness against UVA rays. The rules would also ban the use of misleading terms like “sunblock” and “all-day protection” from labels.

The bad news: These rules were proposed three years ago, and the agency has yet to take action. Critics of the F.D.A. have accused it of foot-dragging because of pressure from sunscreen manufacturers.

(More here.)