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Excerpt Only
Using Zinc Oxide in Sunscreen Products
By: Ken Klein
Posted: December 23, 2005, from the February 2004 issue of Cosmetics & Toiletries.
Purchase This Article
- From Cosmetics & Toiletries
- February 2004 issue, pg 22
- 3 pages
Article Keywords:
- zinc oxide
- sunscreen
Available Formats:
- Adobe PDF for download
- Printed copies mailed to you
From $9 an article
While zinc oxide had been used for decades in sunscreen products — remember the white coating on lifeguards’ noses? — it was only approved for this use by the FDA approximately 10 years ago. Prior to that, it was actually considered to be (and still is) an approved skin protectant material.
When we think of zinc oxide as a sunscreen we normally only consider one of the three mechanisms that it employs, blocking the UV energy. Zinc oxide also scatters the UV energy. We refer to this as increasing the optical path length. This phenomenon was well explained by Dr. Robert Sayre.
This is only an excerpt of the full article that appeared in Cosmetics & Toiletries, but you can purchase the full-text version.
