Sunscreen standards are set for a major change that would clear the way for the sale of products with a sun protection factor almost double what is sold today.
The Sun Herald newspaper reported yesterday that a Standards Australia sunscreen committee, comprising of representatives of the cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries, as well as the Pharmacy Guild and the Cancer Council, has backed a plan to increase the sun protection factor (SPF) to 50+, from the maximum SPF 30+ allowed at the moment.
The newspaper claimed that the Therapeutic Goods Administration would now move to give the change the go-ahead, with implementation expected by the end of next year.
It was claimed that sunscreen manufacturers were already selling creams with SPF of up to 100 but could only label them with a maximum SPF of 30+.
However the Cancer Council still feared that higher SPF standards could encourage consumers to apply less amount of sunscreen and less frequently.
"If we're going to achieve gains in public health in terms of reducing skin cancer, it's far more important to have people apply more sunscreen onto their skin and to reapply than it is for us to be chasing numbers," Craig Sinclair, the head of the Cancer Council's skin cancer committee, was quoted as saying.