The good days have returned. And with them, the desire to enjoy, and therefore to expose oneself to the gentle rays of the sun so loved on the shores of the Mediterranean. Walks, barbecues, first beaches, bike rides, breaks on the terrace… So many risks of catching the first sunburn of the year. So, we protect ourselves with sunscreen face creams, including those labeled index 50 and 50+. They are reassuring, and now available in small formats, practical for always having them with you.
But do they really protect? UFC-Que Choisir monitored the performance of 13 products to verify whether they really guaranteed the expected level of protection. The results, published this Tuesday, are cause for concern: a third of these products do not provide the level of protection displayed.
“In view of the high proportion of potentially misleading labeling, UFC-Que Choisir calls on manufacturers to make their products conform to the displayed indices or, failing that, to withdraw them and reserves the possibility of taking any useful action in justice”indicates the association in a press release published this Tuesday.
Intensify controls
The association also contacted the General Directorate for Competition and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) “so that it sanctions brands marketing such products, steps up controls on sun protection products and takes measures to put an end to these practices.”
Sun creams index 50 and 50+ “are believed to provide the highest levels of protection against ultraviolet rays”recalls the UFC-Que Choisir, whose tests show that “of the 13 creams tested, 5 do not meet the expected levels of sun protection”. “Four of them only achieve protection corresponding to an index 30”, according to the association, which emphasizes that“it is rare” that she notices “such a proportion of failures, and that they come from brands as well anchored in the landscape as Vichy, Biotherm or Lancaster”. The two other brands affected are Isdin and Rituals.
Of the “stratospheric prices”
Finally, the UFC-Que Choisir underlines in its press release the “stratospheric price” sunscreen for the face, “even for brands that are usually not very greedy like Nivea and Yves Rocher”. Within the same brand, the prices per liter of facial sunscreens are at least twice as expensive as body sunscreens, most often three or four times more expensive and even up to seven times more expensive. For “Yves Rocher, who argues that it is also an anti-aging cream”according to the association.
Note that skin cancer is one of the cancers that has seen the greatest increase in recent decades. Since 1990 the annual number of melanomas diagnosed has increased by 2.5 in women and by 4.5 in men.
“A bad environmental rating”
On the other hand, the association “presses the Ministry of the Environment on the need to regulate environmental claims for cosmetic products”. Because, if the vast majority of products tested are “free of compounds undesirable for human health, a large proportion on the other hand (10 out of 13) receives a poor environmental rating due to the presence of components having harmful effects on aquatic organisms.
