Using sunscreen can be injurious to health

Mon, Mar 31 12:40 AM

Wearing sunscreen does not automatically protect you. At least that is what the American advocacy group, Environmental Working Group just discovered.

The EWG studied the ingredients in sunscreens and found that 84% of the 588 branded sunscreen products they studied contain oxybenzone. The problem with oxybenzone is that the CDC-Centre for Disease Control-has just recently found it toxic and linked it to hormone disruption, cell damage and allergies.

In fact, a survey of 2500 Americans, released last week, showed that 97% of them had absorbed oxybenzone in their bodies. A related new study makes the impact more complex : it shows that women who absorbed this chemical actually give birth to girls who were underweight.

What compounds this problem is callousness- the chemical has not been studied for safety since the 1970s. Science of course, progresses and we learn new things over time.

But policies have to keep up with that too. There is not much we can do at once, because it will take several years before we get safe sunscreen in the market.

But we can read labels and use other devices to buffer the skin from the sun. Earth Hour in absentia The good thing about Earth Hour, even in absentia in India was it forced a lot of people to talk about global warming.

When my home page, which is google, opened on Saturday, the backdrop was inky black for an hour. The darkness reminded users to switch off the lights.

In that instant, many of us realized how privileged we were to have electricity at all. In this peak summer season, we usually know that the power shortage can be as high as 15 per cent.

Google also spoilt the fun by informing us that the reason it didn't do this permanently was that it wouldn't matter at our end-screens use the same amount of power, whatever they display. But then, at home, you don't have to opt to switch off the lights.

Powercuts do the job everywhere. Although most of us should cut down our use and protest against commercial decorations that use lights everywhere, we are enmeshed in a larger problem.

It is that we have a shortfall that will be made up for by setting up ultra mega coal run power plants. These plants are expected not only to displace a few million people, but create even more greenhouse warming, not to mention air pollution.

But if we don't, then how can every village ever have electricity? It's not only a matter of demand, it's a need. What do you think are our options?.

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