Warm summer days often mean spending more time outside. That means more potential sun exposure for your precious skin. Remember to seek shade, cover yourself up with hats and light layers of clothing, and apply sunscreen to exposed skin.

Choose your sunscreen lotions wisely as they are not all created equally. Many chemical sunscreens can be a slurry of toxic hormone disruptors and cancer causing agents. Mineral sunscreens made from zinc oxide and titanium dioxide seem to be better choices as they do not penetrate the skin and they don’t break down in the sun. They also offer better protection against UVA rays than chemical screens do. UVA rays are the ones that penetrate deep into the skin, suppress the immune system, accelerate aging, and may cause skin cancer.

Don’t be fooled by ultra-high SPF’s either. The Sun Protection Factor only refers to the UVB rays which burn and not the more harmful UVA rays. The high SPF can also fool people into thinking they can stay out in the sun longer than they should.

For more information on sunscreen, check out the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) safer sunscreen list for 2013.

http://www.ewg.org/2013sunscreen/best-sunscreens/best-beach-sport-sunscreens/