Just keep using last year’s sunscreen? Better not. Especially not if the best-before date has passed, as the case of Morgan Vacala shows.
As the young woman explains on Tiktok, she got second-degree burns on her forehead – because she used expired sunscreen.
“It took about two to three weeks to heal,” she writes in response. However, she doesn’t reveal what cream she used to help the healing process.
“The healing lasted about two to three weeks,” she writes. With which cream she supported the healing process; however, she does not reveal.
The team had demonstrated in about a dozen sunscreens with octocrylene as a UV filter that octocrylene becomes the substance benzophenone. According to the researchers, if this gets onto the skin, it can trigger rashes, inflammation or hypersensitivity, as also liver cancer or lymphoma. Accordingly, the creams should not be used for too long.
The team had proved with approximately a dozen sun protection means with Octocrylen as UV filters that from Octocrylen the substance Benzophenon becomes. According to the researchers, this comes on the skin and causes, e rashes, inflammations or hypersensitivities, as well as liver cancer or lymphomas. Accordingly, the creams should not be used for too long.
Experts also advise keeping the cream away from sunlight and heat. Otherwise, the effect will wear off more quickly. The best places to store them, they say, are in the refrigerator or a cool cellar.
Experts also advise keeping the cream away from sunlight and heat. Otherwise, the effect will wear off more quickly. The best places to store it, they say, are in the refrigerator or cool basement.
Sunscreen isn’t always cheap. Accordingly, it isn’t enjoyable if you then do not use it up completely. But no matter how much cream is left in a tube, pump dispenser, or spray, it is better not to continue using it the following year. Especially not if the best-before date has passed.
The case of Morgan Vacalas clearly shows why it is better not to do this. The American tells Tiktok about what happened to her after she used – as she says – already expired sunscreen in May 2021. The pictures included speaking volumes. Anyone who sees them will immediately understand why the young woman comments on her post, „Don’t be stupid, check the expiration date on your sunscreen.” She wants to prevent other people from experiencing something similar. However, she does not explain the exact context.
In a second Tiktok clip, Vacala’s burns can be seen healing, with her skin initially blistering and peeling before slowly healing. “It took about two to three weeks to heal,” she writes in response. “I grew up boating and was always in the pool,” she continued. Never had she had such a problem? Since that experience, she said, hats have been her best friends.
Prolonged storage, carcinogens.
But sunscreen doesn’t have to be expired to have serious consequences. For example, after a specific time, not only the UV protection decreases, as French researchers wrote in 2021 in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology. Thus, carcinogenic substances can form during prolonged storage.
In the study, the University of Sorbonne and the French national research agency CNRS artificially aged around a dozen sunscreens containing octocrylene as a UV filter and looked at whether and to what extent the synthetically produced UV filter degrades. The results showed that octocrylene had become the substance benzophenone. According to the researchers, if this substance comes into contact with the skin, it can trigger rashes, inflammation, hypersensitivity, liver cancer, or lymphoma. This has already been the case in animal experiments. According to the experts, the molecule also affects the thyroid gland and reproductive organs, which calls for a ban on the two substances.
- source: 20min.ch/picture: pixabay.com
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