Filter Needed: Emerging Science in and Approaches to Sunscreen Safety

Sunscreen … our daily epi/dermal defense, our solar safeguard, our broad-spectrum BFF for life. Yet lurking in the shaded areas are unfounded fears: “Sunscreen causes cancer; Sunscreen is an endocrine disruptor (and I don’t know what that means but it sounds scary); Sunscreens ate my homework.” Enter Jay Nash, toxicology titan and sunscreen sage, to shed some UV clarity. In this episode, JDD Podcast host Dr. Adam Friedman takes a deep dive into a “Hot Off The Presses” Critical Reviews in Toxicology paper that flips the script on outdated rodent bioassays and shines a bright light on the mode of action (MOA) approach. Spoiler: six of our favorite SPF staples, avobenzone, homosalate, octinoxate, octisalate, octocrylene, and ensulizole, shouldn’t make you wobbly in the knees after all. Tune in as we unpack why 2-year rat studies may be feverishly clawing up the wrong tree, how MOA helps connect mechanistic dots, and what this means for patients who just want safe sun protection without sizzling in skepticism. From DNA damage to estrogen activity, immune modulation to cytotoxicity, Jay Nash breaks it all down, no shady business here. If you’ve ever fielded the, “Is sunscreen safe?” question (and btw, yes, it is), this episode will give you the science, the sass, and the sound bites to answer with confidence. Trust your filters. Trust the data. Trust this episode.