Do Sunscreens Increase the Risk of Skin Cancer?
False and misinterpreted information about sun protection and skin cancer is circulating on social media. Do sunscreens protect against melanoma, or do they actually increase the risk of skin cancer?
Warnings are currently spreading on social media about an alleged risk of skin cancer caused by sunscreens. Although ultraviolet rays are the main cause of melanoma and sunscreens block those rays, some advise against their use and portray sunscreens as a potential danger.
Is There Any Truth to These Claims?
Claim: "It is an indisputable fact that countries with the highest sunscreen usage also have the highest rates of skin cancer. The more sunscreen is used, the more skin cancer spreads," wrote a U.S.-based X platform user with 58,000 followers at the end of June.
On TikTok, too, videos can be found warning about the alleged skin cancer risk linked to sunscreen use.
DW Fact Check: False
These warnings are unfounded.
"There is no scientific evidence suggesting a link between increased cancer risk and the use of sunscreens," said Brittany Schaefer from the Connecticut Department of Public Health in a statement to DW.
The X platform user cited the Connecticut Tumor Registry as a source in their post. Spokeswoman Schaefer explained that the claim is incorrect:
"The original cancer incidence data likely came from the CTR — the tumor registry from several decades ago — but the added commentary about sunscreen is not part of that data. We don’t know the source of the current graphic, but it did not come from CTR or the Connecticut Department of Health."
More Sunscreen, More Melanoma?
So why is the number of skin cancer cases rising globally, despite the increasing use of sunscreen? An international study by scientists from the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, and Hungary, published in December 2023, proposed five hypotheses to explain the contradiction.
According to the Basel study, reasons for the misconceptions and myths about sunscreen and cancer risk include:
increased diagnostics
improved treatment methods
outdated scientific studies
irregular and improper use of sunscreen
climate change
High Incidence in Australia
Growing awareness among patients and doctors has led to more reporting and recording of skin cancer cases. Despite rising incidence, the global skin cancer mortality rate is declining thanks to better treatments, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
According to the World Cancer Research Fund data from 2022, Australia had the highest age-standardized incidence rate of new skin cancer cases: 37 per 100,000 people annually, followed by Denmark (31.1), Norway (30.6), New Zealand (29.8), and Sweden (27.4).
In terms of total skin cancer cases in 2022, the U.S. ranked first with 101,388 cases, while Germany, with the same incidence rate of 16.5, had 21,976 cases, placing it second.
Regarding deaths, the U.S. again ranked first in 2022 with 7,368 deaths, and Germany was fourth with 3,303 cases, behind China and Russia. This data shows that high incidence doesn’t necessarily mean high mortality.
Outdated Studies
Another possible reason for the rising number of skin cancer cases is that more people are spending time in the sun. Even when they use sunscreen, it doesn’t mean they use it correctly.
The lack of modern scientific studies contributes to outdated narratives. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating sunscreens only in 2011. Earlier studies likely involved sunscreens with much lower protection levels than those available today.
Sunscreens – a Lucrative Market
But do people in countries with the highest skin cancer rates (New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Norway, Canada, and the U.S.) actually use sunscreen more often, as claimed online?
It’s true that global sales of sunscreen are increasing. According to manufacturers, the market is expected to reach a value of USD 13.553 billion by 2028. The largest market is the U.S., followed by China and South Korea.
How sunscreen is actually used in practice is another matter. According to Australia’s Bureau of Statistics, 38 percent of people aged 15 and older use sunscreen regularly.
However, nearly 7 percent of respondents reported sunburns in the week before the survey. Among those aged 15 to 24, the figure was as high as 15 percent.
Sunscreen Only on Vacation
In the U.S., a Talker Research study from May this year showed that fewer than 41 percent of 2,000 respondents use sunscreen more than 60 days per year. Thirteen percent said they never use it.
In Germany, a country with high skin cancer rates, an online survey from August 2024 found that about 51 percent of people use sunscreen only in summer or when directly exposed to sunlight.
Sybille Kohlstädt, spokeswoman for the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, warns that due to a lack of reliable data, one should not draw incorrect conclusions:
"Unlike the available data showing the global increase in skin cancer, there are no national statistics that precisely track sunscreen usage and correlate it with cancer incidence."
