The official guidance for the level of sun cream needed to protect from skin cancer, is misleading, new research suggests.<\/p>\n
Currently, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends using a sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15, as this is of sufficient strength to prevent sunburn and reduce the risk of skin cancer.<\/p>\n
But the Drugs and Therapeutics Bulletin (DTB) is warning NICE to reconsider its recommendation, believing the advice is not in the interests of public health.<\/p>\n
The DTB says that people using sunscreen generally apply much less than the instructions recommend.<\/p>\n
Typically people were found to be getting no more than half of the protection labelled on the bottle they were using.<\/p>\n
According to\u00a0DTB’s \u00a0findings,\u00a0a sunscreen with an SPF of 50, will only be giving an SPF protection of between 19 and 3.<\/p>\n
Problems lie with the amount of the sunscreen people are actually using and the NICE test conditions.<\/p>\n
NICE perform a standard test in which manufacturers apply the recommended 2mg\/cm2 of product to skin.<\/p>\n
But evidence showed that most people only apply between 1.5mg \u2013 0.5 mg\/cm2.<\/p>\n
To apply the correct amount for an adult recommend by NICE – 35 ml every two hours- a 200 ml bottle would be used up every two \u2013 three days.<\/p>\n
DTB is urging NICE to re-test sunscreen under conditions used by typical adults.<\/p>\n
They also say consumers should also be cautious when selecting products with a star rating.<\/p>\n
Whilst more stars mean more UVA protection, a 5-star products at a lower SPF will provide less UVA protection than a 3-star product with a higher SPF.<\/p>\n
DTB editor, Dr Ike Iheanacho says: \u201cIn DTB’s view, NICE’s recommendation to use sunscreens with an SPF as low as 15 is a blunder that overlooks the key evidence and is not in the best interests of public health. This advice needs urgent review and correction.”<\/p>\n
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The official guidance for the level of sun cream needed to protect from skin cancer, is misleading, new research suggests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bristol-news"],"yoast_head":"\n