| Many intentional functional ingredients in sunscreens are known carcinogens and absorbed at levels beyond any safety testing: https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/2020... Contamination of sunscreens with common dangerous byproducts of industrial processes like benzene is common: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/benzene-su... By comparison, shade contains no carcinogens. Sun exposure correlated with longer life (even while also being correlated with more cancer deaths!): https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heres-something-unexpect... An earlier broad survey also finding natural sun exposure decreasing all-cause mortality (but not use of tanning beds, despite similar effects on Vitamin D production, again suggesting D-supplements alone don't replicate the sun): https://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/20/4/582 I'd agree, it is hard to disentangle these correlations with things like general levels of outdoor activity and socializing. But even so: if people who are healthy for other reasons tend to spend more time outside in sun, maybe it'd be a good idea to join them, & perhaps absorb their other habits as well, rather than live in fear of the sun? (Maybe even the sun is damaging on many levels, but the other benefits of activities inherently done more under the sun offset those effects, even if just via mood/optimism?) I'd say instead that it's an incorrect framework to embrace an illusion of total control "through different lifestyle choices" without tradeoffs. Every activity has a mix of risks and benefits. Certain vigorous activities with a higher risk of accidental death may deliver other fitness and social benefits. If an extra 5 hours of sun every week doubles melanoma death risk, but reduces cardio/cancer death risk just 1%, that sun would still be a net-mortality benefit. Such tradeoffs are real & everywhere. Trying to engineer both benefits – "can I do everything other healthy people do usually do outdoors indoors? can I find the least-dangerous sunscreen? will vitamin D supplments, perhaps with a bunch of other diet changes, simulate the sun's benefits?" – also includes costs, in research time, psychological focus, neurotic behaviors, etc, for diminishing returns. |