The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of bemotrizinol in sunscreen on Tuesday, the first time the federal agency has given the green light to a new active ingredient in sunscreen since the 2000s.
The FDA first announced in December that it was investigating bemotrizinol as an ingredient after DSM Nutritional Products LLC applied to use it in concentrations up to 6%. The ingredient has been widely used in Europe, Australia, and Asia for decades, and health experts have encouraged its approval in the U.S.
Bemotrizinol has been added to the OTC monograph for sunscreen, a process that lays out how nonprescription therapies can be used, manufactured, and dosed to be generally recognized as safe without explicit approval from the FDA.
“As promised in the Trump Administration’s MAHA Strategy Report, HHS is advancing innovation by bringing a new sunscreen ingredient to the U.S. market for the first time in 20 years,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr said in a statement. “Bemotrizinol has been used safely in Europe for decades, and FDA’s action will increase competition and consumer confidence in sunscreen products.”
As CNN notes, the sunscreens currently available in the U.S. are good at blocking ultraviolet B rays, which cause sunburns, but they’re not great at blocking ultraviolet A rays (UVA), which can penetrate deep and contribute to skin cancer. The addition of bemotrizinol is expected to change that.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a consumer advocacy group that supports the use of bemotrizinol in sunscreen, praised the move in a press release on Tuesday.
“This is a great day for American consumers and everyone who has fought to improve sunscreen options and close the UVA protection gap in U.S. sunscreens,” said David Andrews, Ph.D., chief science officer at EWG.
“For decades, Americans have used outdated sunscreen tech while the rest of the world moved forward. The approval of bemotrizinol will help change that,” Andrews continued. “The FDA’s go-ahead will finally bring more effective, safer sun protection to American store shelves. This is a win that has been a long time coming.”
The Trump regime can get credit for expanding the kinds of sunscreen that Americans will now have access to. But this is not a government truly looking after your health. For example, the Trump administration didn’t like some federally commissioned research that found drinking even moderate levels of alcohol is bad for you and ignored the findings.
The MAHA folks found a study that said moderate drinking was actually good for you, the message the alcohol industry would like to spread, and the study showing the opposite was finally published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs on Tuesday after being sidelined by the White House, according to Reuters.
RFK Jr. may be a dangerous kook who’s contributed to the rise of measles and anti-vaccine sentiment in the U.S. with his MAHA movement. But even a stopped clock is right twice a day, as the saying goes. And Kennedy has done Americans a favor with this one.
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