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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, one thing we like is a good mystery. Sometimes about really big things, but most times, the little mysteries are the best.
Our lost and found is currently filled with pants. I don't know, I've never seen this happen. Wait, this is true? This is true. Mysteries of every size, each week. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Until this week, the United States hadn't approved a new sunscreen ingredient in almost 30 years.
That changed when the FDA approved a new chemical UV filter for U.S. sunscreens on Tuesday. NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy is here to tell us all about it. Hey, Maria. Hi, Gina. So what is this ingredient that just got approved?
Yeah, it's called Bimetrezanol, and it's a chemical UV filter that's been used in sunscreens in Europe and Asia for a long time. Often it's also sold under the name Tenosorb S. Here you will see it as Parcel Shield. That's the trademark name for it from the company that got it approved for sale in the U.S. I talked about this with Dr. Heather Rogers.
She's a dermatologist in Seattle and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology. And she says she is psyched about this new ingredient.
It hits like really every box for us that we have been waiting for as dermatologists and consumers.
I love sunscreen, so I'm really excited about this. We actually did an episode last year on why U.S. sunscreens have lagged behind European and Asian ones. And part of the reason was that there's different regulations for how sunscreen is approved in the U.S.
Yeah, that's right. I absolutely love sunscreens, too.
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Chapter 2: What is the new sunscreen ingredient approved by the FDA?
Use it every day of the year. And you're right. It's a long process, partially because in the U.S. there's a higher bar for proving that they're safe and effective. In Europe, they treat sunscreens as cosmetics, and it's also expensive. So companies in the past have looked to get new sunscreen ingredients approved here. But they gave up because it just cost way too much money.
And in fact, it took 20 years to get this new ingredient approved here and millions and millions of dollars.
Today on the show, why approve this new sunscreen now after a 20-year wait? Plus, how it works. I'm Regina Barber, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR. You know, every day on Up First, NPR's Golden Globe-nominated morning news podcast, we bring you three essential stories. At the heart of each story are questions. What really happened? What really mattered?
What happens next? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious and to follow the facts. Follow Up First wherever you get your podcasts and start your day knowing what matters and why.
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Okay, Maria, we're talking about the newly FDA-approved sunscreen ingredient bimetrezanol. And to understand it, I think we need a little sunscreen 101. Sunscreen's main purpose is to protect against two types of UV rays, UVA and UVB. These are different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but that's probably not helpful for people.
So, Maria, break down what's the difference between both of them.
Okay, so what I use this heuristic, which is UVA, those are the longer wavelengths, and they're responsible for aging. So A for aging, like premature aging. UVB, they're shorter wavelengths. And those are the ones responsible for, you know, burning, basically. B for burning. A for aging. Okay.
But they actually both kind of affect both things, right? It's a little bit more complicated than that.
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Chapter 3: Why has the U.S. sunscreen approval process taken so long?
Yeah, exactly. Those are minerals, you know, in their pure form, they're white powders. And so when you apply it, they often leave what people call it a white cast. You know, it depends on the formulation and the SPF level, but you'll often hear people complain that their mineral sunscreens don't blend super well. So...
you know, they might not be as likely to wear them because they don't want to look funny. And Heather Rogers says, that's a problem. You want people to wear sunscreen.
Particularly if you're a person of color. Zinc is going to make you look pale, white, or ashy, which really makes it hard to use on a regular basis.
But Benetrizol is different, right?
Yeah. So it's a chemical UV filter. It's a chemical sunscreen, what we call chemical sunscreens. And they work a little different.
Because they get absorbed into your skin, right? Instead of like sitting on top of your skin.
Yeah, right. So they blend super evenly. And so you end up with something that's transparent on your skin. And the plus side of chemical sunscreens is they don't make people look super ghostly pale. But one downside is for a lot of people, they can be more irritating.
I don't know about you, Gina, but I've always actually avoided chemical sunscreens because I sweat a lot in the heat, which is when you're going to be wearing sunscreen the most. Although I wear it all the time. And anyway, when I sweat, it gets in my eyes and that burns.
Yeah, I've noticed the more I reapply, the more it gets into my eyes.
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