2026-08-28
31 分钟This is In Conversation from Apple News.
I'm David Green in for Shumita Basu.
Today, why so many Americans are rejecting sunscreen.
The final weeks of summer are here and Americans are soaking up the last rays of sun.
And many of them may be reconsidering whether or not to use sun protection.
Over the past few years, an online campaign has been mounting against sunscreen.
Influencers on social media have been making unsubstantiated claims that it's healthier not to use sunscreen,
saying that sunscreen itself, rather than the sun, is doing harm to people's skin.
I believe that sunscreen is the most toxic invention of the 20th century.
The UV chemical filters in chemical sunscreens today are some of the most toxic products that people are using.
Our bodies are perfectly adapted for sunlight.
If you do burn, it probably has to do with the food you're eating
and the state that you're in as opposed to the sun, which is meant to be healing, hitting your skin.
Sunscreen is a scam.
That's basically what it is.
And while this messaging is filled with falsehoods and inaccuracies, it is growing louder.
A survey this spring from the Melanoma Research Alliance
found that 53% of Americans have been exposed to claims that sunscreen is harmful.
And the American Academy of Dermatology this year reported
that more than 16 million adults have reduced or stopped their sunscreen use.