Right on the heels of a handful of sunscreen products being pulled from the shelves for having benzene, a known carcinogen, in them, scientists are calling on the FDA to now pull thousands of products that contain octocrylene, another suspected carcinogenic ingredient.

The chemical also can interfere with hormones and reproductive organs. About 2,400 sunscreen products contain octocrylene, according to Bloomberg News. “We don’t know what their safety is,” Craig Downs, executive director of the nonprofit Haereticus Environmental Health, told Bloomberg. “The FDA doesn’t know what their safety is and it’s unconscionable that the FDA would allow something that we don’t know if it’s safe or not.”

The FDA had requested more information from sunscreen makers two years ago, but that didn’t happen, a senior scientist at Environmental Working Group said. A sunscreen trade group called the latest report “misleading,” Bloomberg said.

SOURCE: Bloomberg News August 9, 2021