As a sunburn-prone redhead, sunscreen buys me a ticket to vacation fun. Without slathering on a thick coating of SPF 45 I would be unable to leave the hotel room in a tropical locale for even one minute. I sometimes wonder what life would be like without sunscreen (would I be forced to trade my beach holidays for winter ski vacations?) and I also wonder if my trusted SPF is the solar panacea that it claims to be.

As Skincare Awareness Month comes to a close — and summer sunscreen weather gears up — the editors at Berkeley Wellness have asked the same question. Their inquiry is also in response to the class action suit filed by two Los Angeles law firms against several sunscreen manufacturers earlier this month. Though the case is primarily about whether or not the suncreens truly are "waterproof" and "broad-spectrum," the anti-sunscreen rumblings have led to several sunscreen rumors leaving many people confused about the place that sunscreen should play in their lives.

Berkeley Wellness gets right to it, answering the question "do sunscreens actually cause skin cancer?" with the help of an investigator at the National Cancer Institute. "There are many chemicals in sunscreens . . . . If you expose human genetic material to these chemicals in a test tube, they may damage it," explains Dr. John DiGiovanna. "But in actual use sunscreens never get inside the cells: there is little skin penetration. We have a wealth of evidence over the years that in people prone to develop skin cancer, sunscreens are very protective."

And do high SPFs give the sunbather a false sense of security? Berkeley says, "maybe." The thinking is that high SPFs may encourage risky sun behavior — i.e. baking for an extended period of time or during peak sun hours (10 a.m. to four p.m.) — and that they are only part of a complete sun protection regimen, which should also include wearing protective clothing and resisting the urge to tan.

Though I've also heard that those with darker complexions have less of a risk of developing skin cancer, I was hoping that it was just another sunburn myth. Well, it's not. According to Berkeley, blonds, redheads, and those with freckles are at high risk. Great. For me, nothing has changed. This summer I will continue to tote around my economy-size bottle of sunscreen. It's what a redhead's got to do.

[via Berkeley Wellness]

Image: babs.com.au