Nanoparticle-based Sunscreens Get Environmental Group's Seal of Approval

Sunscreens using nanoparticles are at least healthier than a sunburn

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Andrew Maynard’s 20/20 Science blog picked up on the latest environmental, health and safety (EHS) news on nanotech in which the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which has hardly been a cheerleader for nanotechnology to date, released an approving evaluation of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreens.

For the EWG to come back with an evaluation that more or less states using sunscreens with these nanoparticles is a whole lot better for your health than getting a sunburn  certainly was not going to be taken lying down by the NGOs who have sworn nanotechnology as their mortal enemy in order to fill up their day.

We get a bit of this in the comments to Maynard’s blog from a Friends of the Earth (FoE) representative in which every possible idea is presented to somehow discredit the EWG report.

Maynard, who always comes across as being bound to science more than ideology, treats the litany of complaints with kid gloves at once dispelling any reasons for not using these sunscreens and at the same time leaving room for hope that nanoparticles may still cause us harm. One wouldn’t want to discourage FoE in Australia from having something to complain about.

But this latest research has got to come as a blow to the NGOs who had stirred up so much concern (fear) about nanoparticles used in cosmetics. If this continues, they’ll be left with only food to carry on about.

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