Americans will soon be able to erase sunscreen off their lists of must-buy souvenirs when traveling to Europe and Asia.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently added bemotrizinol, an ultraviolet radiation filter that’s been available and popular outside the U.S. for decades, to the list of active ingredients permitted in sunscreens.
The news has been warmly received by skin care obsessives and dermatologists alike.
The American Academy of Dermatology applauded the announcement as “an important public health step” that expands “access to safe and effective sunscreens for consumers in the United States” and will help “save the lives of Americans from skin cancer, one of the most preventable cancers.”
Experts we consulted, like Jennifer N. Choi, professor of dermatology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, called the approval “a good thing” and assured us that dermatologists are “happy about it.”
Sunscreen innovations in the U.S. have lagged behind international markets due in large part to how products are classified. In the U.S., active ingredient updates fall under the FDA’s jurisdiction and are therefore subject to all of that agency’s onerous regulatory processes. In markets like Europe, on the other hand, sunscreen is considered a cosmetic, allowing for easier product reformulations.
This is the first major modernization of over-the-counter sunscreen in the U.S. since the 1990s.
Domestic manufacturers will be able to use the ingredient starting Aug. 9, meaning Americans could find improved sunscreens on store shelves—without having to take an international flight—before the end of beach season.
What’s so special about bemotrizinol?
“This new ingredient has a lot going for it,” says Dr. Eileen Deignan, chief of dermatology at Emerson Health in the Boston area.
Most important, bemotrizinol covers both the UVA and UVB spectrum, and goes on much clearer than mineral sunscreens made of zinc or titanium dioxide.
“It is a larger molecule that is not absorbed in the top layer of the skin and therefore may be less irritating for people with sensitive skin,” says Deignan. Additionally, the ingredient is photo stable, meaning it doesn’t break down in UV light the way other chemical sunscreens do.
On labels, consumers looking for sunscreens containing bemotrizinol should look for mention of “Parsol Shield” (Tinosorb S). The ingredient is approved for all people over 6 months of age.
While approval for bemotrizinol is a step forward, dermatologists have other ingredients in mind they’d like to see approved next. “In the future, we hope to see Mexoryl SX (ecamsule) and [Mexoryl] XL (drometrizole triloxane),” says Deignan.
Still, with improved sunscreen on the way—not to mention the newfound U.S. availability of Biafine, the French wonder creme for sunburns and other forms of skin damage—we could be entering a golden age of not frying ourselves to a crisp.
Related: Dermatologists Answer All Our Burning Questions About Sunscreen
