Why don’t you reuse your sunscreen from last year?
As we know, the sun does good for our morale but can be very harmful for the skin if we do not properly protect ourselves from UV rays! It is essential to apply sunscreen before any exposure… and not just any. Before you coat yourself with sunscreen, remember to look at the expiry date of your tube. Eventually, they would become ineffective or even unsafe.
Risk of burns
When a sunscreen stays open for several months, the components that protect the skin from UV rays become less or more effective. As a result, the epidermis is no longer protected. Morgan Vacala experienced this just over a year ago. After sunbathing with an outdated sunscreen, the young woman was burned to the second degree on her forehead. On her TikTok account, she shares her experience and cautions netizens. “The healing took two to three weeks. […] I’ve never been burned so much,” she says. On her post that went viral, the young woman unveils pictures of her crushed face. “Don’t be stupid, check your sunscreen expiry date,” she writes…
Presence of carcinogenic endocrine disruptor
But that is not the only risk. If the creams no longer protect the skin from the sun once it has expired, they can also present a completely different danger after one year. According to a study published last year in the American journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, these sunscreens become carcinogenic the following year. In order to reach such conclusions, researchers at the CNRS and the Sorbonne University have screened ten sunscreen creams frequently used in France, from the Garnier, Uriage, Roche Posay and Bioderma brands. By aging them prematurely, they found that after one year, octocrylene, a sunscreen used in cosmetics, was transformed into benzophenone. Classified as carcinogenic by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer, this endocrine disruptor is absorbed by the skin. “When it is on the skin, benzophenone can induce dermatitis and can cause cancers, especially of the liver”, explains Didier Stien, one of the authors of the study, to the franceinfo website. Scientists hope to alert manufacturers and consumers to the presence of this endocrine disruptor.
How do I know my sunscreen is out of date?
To avoid the risk of burns or even cancer, it is therefore better to check the maximum storage date after opening your protection. The latter is generally found on the back of the cream, on the packaging, with the logo of a small open pot. The number and the letter indicate the life of the product. If it says “12M”, you can keep it for up to 12 months after opening.
