Sunscreens have been touted over the past few decades as an essential component for healthy skin routines and cancer prevention. Most people realize that prolonged exposure to those powerful UV rays is a common cause of many strains of skin cancer. There are other benefits gained from regular use of sunscreen, such as its role in maintaining skin’s moisture and its prevention of premature aging. But scientists are now looking at the ingredients in some sunscreens as potential threats to the environment.  

Zinc oxide is a common and popular ingredient used in sunscreens to absorb or deflect damaging ultra violet (UV) rays. The complaint by users in the past has been the ghostly white appearance it leaves behind. The certified solution was to make zinc oxide clear by shrinking it into tiny particles between one and 100 nanometers (a nanometer is roughly half the size of a strand of DNA). Users were rid of the chalky white skin effect, but scientific America has recently reported that the use of these nanoparticles in zinc oxide may pose risks to the environment by damaging beneficial skin microbes.

In a current study, University of Toledo researchers find that nano-titanium dioxide used in personal care products reduces the biological roles of bacteria after less than an hour of exposure. The research findings suggest that these bacterial particles, which end up at municipal sewage treatment plants after being washed off in showers, could eliminate microbes that play vital roles in ecosystems and actually help treat wastewater. These tiny microbes have big jobs; they remove ammonia from wastewater, they clean up toxic waste, and they reduce harmful phosphorus levels in lakes.  

Other groups have conducted similar research on sunscreen’s role in nature. The European Union has consistently been researching nanoparticles and the role they play in the disruption of the environment. In March 2009, a majority of the EU Parliament voted for new EU rules regarding creation, sale, and use of nano-cosmetics that will take effect in 2012; more information will be available in coming months. Clear nanoparticle product labeling and specified safety testings are just two of the pre-release regulations that are part of the EU’s newest guidelines.  

Nanotechnology is an exciting study point. It has been noted as being potentially beneficial in creating drugs that could cure cancer and radiation poisoning as well as making everyday use of sunscreens and personal products a safer vantage point. As is the case with most scientific studies, nanotechnology needs more research. At this time, rather than completely discouraging the use of nanoparticles, scientists will develop research methods to recognize the potential of these said products.