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Skin Cancer

Advances in Suncare

Summary & Participants

In the past, a tan was considered a sign of health. But today we know more about the harmful effects of sun exposure, from wrinkling to skin cancer and with this new understanding have come developments in the way we protect our skin. Join our panel of experts for a discussion of the latest in suncare.

Medically Reviewed On: July 23, 2008

Webcast Transcript

SUSAN CINGARI: Hi, I'm Susan Cingari, and welcome to our webcast from sunny Miami.

In the past, a tan was thought to be a sign of health, not to mention sex appeal. But over the years we've discovered what sun can really do to your sun, from premature wrinkles to skin cancer. And with this new understanding have come developments in the way we protect our skin.

Joining me now to discuss advances in sun care are two experts from the University of Miami. Dr. Betty Bellman, good morning, Dr. Bellman, thank you for joining us, and Dr. Barry Resnik.

When I was a kid, the big thing was baby oil and iodine, and that's what we used. Talk to me about some of the original products that people were using. I was probably using wrong by using that, right?

BARRY RESNIK, MD: You were. Baby oil and iodine were used to enhance tans, and therefore skin cancer. I think that in the historical perspective, zinc oxide was the prototypical sunblock. It was white, it was totally reflective, it was what we call a physical sunblock because it blocks the rays that hit your skin and it doesn't let it get to your skin. And then over the years, things began to progress in the chemical industry and we got chemical sunscreen, molecules that actually absorbed the wavelengths of light that caused problems like ultraviolet B and ultraviolet A, and didn't allow it to get onto your skin.

And now we've come almost full circle because a lot of the newest sunscreens that we have are again physical sunscreens using highly pulverized forms of the same things we started off with. Something called micronized titanium dioxide, and also micronized zinc oxide.

SUSAN CINGARI: What are some of the advantages to the older products, if there are any at all? There may not be at this point.

BETTY BELLMAN, MD: The zinc oxide in small particles and the titanium dioxide are really great because they actually prevent the rays from getting into your skin and doing the damage, so they reflect them off of your skin; those are really wonderful. They're hard to run, they're very difficult, they're very white so you have to really spend some time rubbing them in. But they are the best physical blocks.

BARRY RESNIK, MD: In terms of older sunscreens, a lot of the sunscreens used to have PABA in them, a long series of words made up that abbreviation. All of our sunscreens no longer carry that. So if you've got a sunscreen with PABA and you're using it, that's great. But it was removed because it caused contact allergy in a lot of people. So if you've got a sunscreen and maybe it's irritating you it might have PABA and you might want to get a new one.

SUSAN CINGARI: What about new forms of sunscreen? There are so many out there. Talk to me a little bit about some of the brand news and maybe some of the advantages that the new sunscreens have over our previous, older forms.

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