Our long national sunscreen nightmare is almost over
Our long national sunscreen nightmare is almost over
我们漫长的防晒霜噩梦即将结束
Other countries have been doing it right for over 20 years. It’s about time we caught up. 其他国家在防晒方面已经做得很好超过 20 年了。我们是时候迎头赶上了。
On TikTok, the tanned youths are explaining why they no longer wear sunscreen. In one video, a young man films himself in the ocean while describing how you can naturally build up a “solar callus” or sun tolerance to getting burned. (You can’t.) In another, a young woman confidently states that eating healthy foods full of polyphenols and other antioxidants will help make your body more resilient to sunburn. (Antioxidants help with free radical damage, sure, but cannot replace sunscreen.) She also casts sunscreens with “hard-to-pronounce chemicals” as the real enemy, and promotes “all-natural” mineral sunscreens and… beef tallow. (Sadly, yes, the grifters are out here starting to formulate sunscreens with beef tallow despite the horde of dermatologists screaming about how there’s no scientific evidence.) Often, anti-sunscreen influencers argue that our ancestors never worried about sun protection (they did) and how could something natural be bad for you? (The natural sun causes sunburns and skin cancer.) 在 TikTok 上，晒得黝黑的年轻人们正在解释他们为何不再涂抹防晒霜。在一个视频中，一名年轻男子在海里拍摄自己，声称可以通过自然方式建立“太阳老茧”或对晒伤的耐受力。（其实根本做不到。）在另一个视频中，一名年轻女子自信地宣称，食用富含多酚和其他抗氧化剂的健康食品能让身体对晒伤产生更强的抵抗力。（抗氧化剂确实有助于对抗自由基损伤，但无法替代防晒霜。）她还将含有“难以发音的化学物质”的防晒霜视为真正的敌人，并推崇“全天然”矿物防晒霜，甚至……牛油。（可悲的是，确实如此，尽管大批皮肤科医生疾呼这毫无科学依据，但骗子们已经开始用牛油配制防晒霜了。）反防晒网红们经常辩称，我们的祖先从不担心防晒问题（其实他们担心过），而且天然的东西怎么可能对你有害呢？（天然的太阳光会导致晒伤和皮肤癌。）
Hating sunscreen has strangely caught on, but hopefully, that’s about to change. 讨厌防晒霜的行为奇怪地流行了起来，但希望这种情况即将改变。
I’m a different sort of sunscreen evangelist. Last week at WWDC, I found myself chasing down my pastier peers as the sun crept over Apple Park. Did you put on sunscreen? If anyone said no — and many did — I’d tsk and reach into my bag for a tube of Round Lab Birch Juice Moisturizing Sun Cream. I’d demand they hold out three fingers and I’d squeeze out three identical lines of Korea’s finest SPF technology onto their hands. Some were grateful. Most winced, expecting something greasy, hard to rub in, and likely to sting their eyes. 我是一个另类的防晒布道者。上周在 WWDC 大会上，当阳光洒满苹果园区时，我追着那些皮肤苍白的同行们问：“你涂防晒霜了吗？”如果有人说没有——确实很多人没涂——我会咂咂嘴，从包里掏出一管 Round Lab 白桦树汁保湿防晒霜。我会要求他们伸出三根手指，然后在他们手上挤出三条韩国顶级防晒技术的防晒霜。有些人很感激，但大多数人会皱起眉头，因为他们预料到这会是那种油腻、难推开且容易熏眼睛的东西。
All were shocked when this sunscreen was none of those things. 当他们发现这款防晒霜完全没有这些缺点时，所有人都感到震惊。
That’s because for the past 26 years, American sunscreen has been terrible compared to sunscreens available in the rest of the world. For over two decades, we’ve been suffering with white casts, sticky textures, and that weird chemical-y smell, begrudgingly rubbing in minuscule amounts that likely fell short of offering the labeled SPF protection. (You need a quarter teaspoon for your face alone!) Meanwhile, Asia, Australia, and Europe have had elegant formulations that not only feel better to wear, but are also more effective at protecting skin. It’s led to Americans dodging sunscreen like Neo dodging bullets in The Matrix, even though skin cancer is the most common cancer in the US. 这是因为在过去的 26 年里，与世界其他地区的产品相比，美国的防晒霜一直很糟糕。二十多年来，我们一直忍受着泛白、粘腻的质地和那种奇怪的化学气味，勉强涂抹极少量，这很可能达不到标签上标注的防晒效果。（光是脸部就需要四分之一茶匙的量！）与此同时，亚洲、澳大利亚和欧洲早已拥有了质地优良的配方，不仅肤感更好，而且保护皮肤的效果也更佳。这导致美国人躲避防晒霜就像《黑客帝国》里的尼奥躲避子弹一样，尽管皮肤癌是美国最常见的癌症。
But finally there’s good news. Last week, the FDA approved a new chemical sunscreen filter for the first time since 1999. Meaning, at long last, better sunscreens are on the way. 但终于有好消息了。上周，FDA 自 1999 年以来首次批准了一种新的化学防晒过滤剂。这意味着，更好的防晒霜终于要来了。
The new filter is bemotrizinol, also known as Tinosorb S or BEMT. What makes it exciting to cosmetic chemists in the US is it offers broad-spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays, is much more photostable, can help stabilize other sunscreen filters, and isn’t as likely to be absorbed into the bloodstream because it’s a larger molecule. That’s major for several reasons, but perhaps the most important one is that it could help defang the anti-sunscreen movement. 这种新的过滤剂是贝莫三嗪（bemotrizinol），也称为 Tinosorb S 或 BEMT。让美国化妆品化学家感到兴奋的是，它能提供针对 UVA 和 UVB 射线的广谱保护，光稳定性更强，有助于稳定其他防晒过滤剂，而且由于分子较大，不太可能被吸收到血液中。这在多个方面意义重大，但最重要的一点或许是，它有助于削弱反防晒运动的势头。
Anti-sunscreen fears flared up in 2019 and 2021 after the FDA tweaked sunscreen regulations and requested more safety data for some chemical sunscreen filters. Researchers had found that older chemical filters were absorbed into the bloodstream. Meanwhile, mineral sunscreens like zinc and titanium dioxide were deemed GRASE — or generally recognized as safe and effective. (For the record, BEMT has also been deemed GRASE.) 2019 年和 2021 年，在 FDA 修改防晒霜法规并要求对某些化学防晒过滤剂提供更多安全数据后，对防晒霜的恐惧情绪爆发了。研究人员发现，较旧的化学过滤剂会被吸收到血液中。与此同时，氧化锌和二氧化钛等矿物防晒霜被认定为 GRASE（即公认安全有效）。（顺便提一下，BEMT 也已被认定为 GRASE。）
That reinforced the notion that mineral sunscreens are superior to chemical ones, which are “bad for your health.” The reality is the FDA was simply asking for more data. Mineral and chemical sunscreens largely protect your skin in the same way — by absorbing UV rays and using a chemical reaction to dissipate them into heat. The difference is mineral sunscreens also reflect a small portion of UV rays and sit atop your skin, while chemical filters are absorbed. 这强化了一种观念，即矿物防晒霜优于化学防晒霜，后者被认为“对健康有害”。事实是，FDA 只是在要求更多数据。矿物防晒霜和化学防晒霜保护皮肤的方式基本相同——通过吸收紫外线并利用化学反应将其转化为热量散发出去。区别在于，矿物防晒霜还会反射一小部分紫外线并停留在皮肤表面，而化学过滤剂则会被吸收。
Anti-sunscreen videos are actually a minority on social media. Researchers from the University of Alberta studied nearly 1,000 TikTok videos spanning the top five sunscreen-related hashtags; 87 percent promoted sunscreen use. The bad news is that the 6 percent of videos spewing misinformation — claims that sunscreen causes cancer, for example — received much higher rates of engagement. 在社交媒体上，反防晒视频实际上只占少数。阿尔伯塔大学的研究人员研究了近 1,000 个涵盖前五大防晒相关标签的 TikTok 视频；其中 87% 的视频推广了防晒霜的使用。坏消息是，那 6% 散布错误信息的视频（例如声称防晒霜致癌）获得了高得多的互动率。
That has consequences. Teens are purportedly flocking back to tanning beds and checking weather apps for the UV index — not to avoid excessive sun exposure, but to seek it out. A survey by the American Academy of Dermatology Association shows that about half of Americans scored a C or lower on sun safety knowledge, with a third of Gen Z scoring a D or an F. 这带来了后果。据称，青少年们正蜂拥回到美黑沙龙，并查看天气应用中的紫外线指数——不是为了避免过度日晒，而是为了主动寻求日晒。美国皮肤病学会协会的一项调查显示，约有一半的美国人在防晒知识测试中得分在 C 或以下，三分之一的 Z 世代得分在 D 或 F。