FoE Australien lanciert neuen Leitfaden mit nano-freien Sonnencremes

Friends of the Earth Australia (FoEA) has released Australia’s first consumer guide to avoiding "high risk" ‘nanoparticle’ ingredients in sunscreens. In August 2007, FoE has already published a "consumer guide for avoiding nano-sunscreens", with a list of brands containing manufactured nanoparticles. Since declaration of nanomaterials is not mandatory, Australians (and most other people around the world) have had no ability to choose to avoid nano-sunscreens.

The new FoE guide is based on the voluntary responses of 68 sunscreen brands to a questionnaire conducted in November and December 2008. According to FoEA, 17 of 68 Australian brands surveyed have indicated that their sunscreens are now free of nanotechnology ingredients. FoEA tell that the growing numbers of sunscreen manufacturers are making the decision to go ‘nano-free’ in response to public demand to keep untested nano out of sunscreens. However, due to basing the survey on sunscreen manufacturer's indications, it is not clear what "nano-free" means. The often cited 100 nm as a threshold to the nanoworld might not be appropriate to exclude potential health effects with certainty, and the question to which world aggregates of nanoparticles larger than 100 nm have to be counted is not answered either.

In the light of the ongoing public discussion, in connection with a rather big media coverage, any company might be better advised to take off nano sunscreens from the market now, independend from  whether they pose a risk or not. In fact, the scientific opinion is not as clear as FoE states.

Friends of the Earth repeats its call for all nano-sunscreens to be removed from sale until nano ingredients face mandatory safety testing, and mandatory labelling to give Australians a choice about whether or not to use them.

Source: Friends of the Earth