It won’t reduce wrinkles, and could compromise your vitamin D intake, says Professor Brian Diffey
Summer is well and truly over. We may have many bright, crisp days ahead of us (and plenty of grey, damp ones too) but temperatures are dropping and coats are coming out of storage. And so the question arises – should you wear sunscreen in autumn and winter?
It’s a divisive issue: one YouGov survey of 2,000 people in the UK found 53 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds agreed SPF should be worn all year round, compared with only 30 per cent of adults aged 55 and over.
But Professor Brian Diffey, a photobiologist speaking on behalf of the British Association of Dermatologists, says it’s far from necessary.
“Sunscreen contains chemicals called UV filters which can attenuate the sun’s ultraviolet rays and so reduce the intensity that gets into the skin,” he says, “and we need it for two reasons.” These two reasons are well-established: the first being the acute effects of sunlight resulting in painful burning; and the second that repeated sun exposure over many years can lead to skin cancer. “It’s important to use it when you’re out of doors in the summertime for any period.”
However, Professor Diffey disputes the idea that we need to use it all year round.
“At this point [September] we need to use sunscreen for maybe another couple of weeks, but we should not be using sunscreen from mid-October through to early March in this country.” The reason for this, he explains, is that the current advice is you only need sunscreen when the UV index is greater than three. “And on no day between mid-October to early March in the UK, no matter what the weather is like, will the UV index be three or more.” He adds that “sunscreen” in this case also refers to moisturisers which contain an SPF.
He argues that the best case scenario is that you’re putting something on your skin which is providing you with no benefit – but there can also be potential hazards to both humans and the environment.
“Sunscreen can cause irritant reactions in some people; it might well compromise your vitamin D production, particularly in the autumn months; and when it gets discharged into waterways, there’s some evidence it can cause adverse effects in marine life.” The point here is not that sunscreen is bad for you or a scam (as some fringe thinkers argue) – rather that its use is a matter of weighing up pros and cons. Use it when it’s necessary, but don’t use it when it’s not.
He gives an example of an office worker in London in December. “On a typical winter day if you pop out at lunchtime for half an hour, you’re getting the equivalent of one minute of summer sunbathing. That’s a trivial biological exposure. So to put a product on your skin just to reduce that tiny, tiny amount, is of no benefit to you and it carries with it potential side effects.” This trivial exposure also limits the amount of vitamin D our body can produce, but as we go through the winter months we use up the stores we have made in the summer. Additionally, you can take a low dose of vitamin D as a supplement during the winter months.
One of the arguments made for wearing sunscreen all year round is to reduce superficial changes to the skin and signs of ageing. But Brian refutes that, too. “As I’ve explained, the UV exposure you’re getting over the winter months is very tiny, but unfortunately some people don’t research it deeply enough and copy what somebody else says.
“If people want to use it over the winter, that’s up to them, but it’s not doing them any good, it’s not going to reduce your wrinkles over the winter, and it’s potentially carried with its adverse effects. My advice is to use it sensibly.”
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