At Tan Plus, we believe it is always best to achieve a tan gradually to prevent burning and without applying sunscreen, so as not to deprive the body of the suns' many health benefits. When you use sunscreen your body is absorbing synthetic chemicals, and with the "so called" experts' recommendations to apply generous amounts of the product every few hours, you will likely be absorbing a fair amount. While the FDA classifies most active ingredients in sunscreen as GRASE (generally regarded as safe and effective), we have found it hard to believe that all of these chemicals will not have any effect on your system at some point. The truth is "what you put on your skin will eventually end up in your bloodstream".

Both my wife and I are in our mid-sixties and never in our lives have used a sunscreen or sunblock. We have tanned indoors, year round, since 1982 with no indications and without fear of getting skin cancer. We have never had the need for prescription medications and attribute our good health to diet and responsible tanning practices. Is it merely a coincidence that sunscreen sales have skyrocketed and so has skin cancer? In addition, sunscreen has been added to make-up and most skincare products. If sunscreen was such a miracle potion, shouldn't skin cancer have been irradiated by now?

The evidence against most sunscreen ingredients has been mounting. A vitamin A compound, retinyl palmitate, found in 41 percent of sunscreens (also most moisturizers and many cosmetics), is finally being investigated by the FDA. The FDA's data suggests that retinyl palmitate may be photocarcinogenic, meaning that in the presence of the sun's ultraviolet rays, the compound and skin undergo complex biochemical changes resulting in cancer. Another sunscreen chemical, oxybenzone, a hormone-disrupting compound that penetrates the skin and enters the bloodstream, has been detected by the Centers of Disease Control in the bodies of 97 percent of Americans tested.

Since the opening of Tan Plus in 1987, I have been an outspoken critic of sunscreen use and more recently, spray-tanning due to the chemicals applied to the skin. As the evidence keeps mounting against sunscreen chemicals, doctors and the media keep pushing for more use of these potentially cancer-causing lotions. It's unlikely you will get the truth from the media. The commercials on T.V. and the magazine ads should be an obvious indicator of why. The media, both electronic and print, is funded significantly by the multi-billion dollar cosmetic industry. If they choose to take these sunscreen makers to task, they will kiss millions of advertising income goodbye. So, expect more negative, unfounded attacks against the tanning industry to continue as a way of creating a diversion away from the real cause of skin cancer, readily available and comes in a tube or a bottle.

Ray Allard
Tan Plus/ Essentials Of Life

Tanning & Natural Health News is a publication of Tan Plus /Essentials Of Life, Barclay Square, 350 Route 108, Somersworth, NH. This publication is designed for educational purposes only and is not intended to be presented as medical advice. Product statements made have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.