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Over 80% of sunscreen performed below their labelled efficacy (2020)

(www.consumer.org.hk)
230 points mgh2 | 2 comments | 06 Sep 25 19:57 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Insanity ◴[06 Sep 25 21:22 UTC] No.45152959[source]▶
Why does it not list the brands? The article is both informative and useless simultaneously
replies(1): >>45153021 #
mgh2 ◴[06 Sep 25 21:28 UTC] No.45153021[source]▶
Avoid (from other 3 articles/studies): Neutrogena, Banana Boat, Bondi Sands, Cancer Council, Aldi, Nivea, Estée Lauder, iPSA, Anessa, Shiseido, Curél, Sofina, Laneige, Dermacept, Bio-Essence, Fancl (Japan), Purito (Korea)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45145624

[2] https://labmuffin.com/purito-sunscreen-and-all-about-spf-tes...

[3] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-04/questions-over-lab-th...

replies(7): >>45153085 #>>45153094 #>>45153355 #>>45153485 #>>45153680 #>>45153747 #>>45153897 #
kelnos ◴[06 Sep 25 21:36 UTC] No.45153085[source]▶
Seems like it's not that simple. The CHOICE study[0] suggest that some brands do have some good "models" of sunscreen, but some are bad. It's also possible that there's a process issue at the manufacturers, and the quality of different lots can vary:

> Ultra Violette announced it was removing the Lean Screen product from shelves. Across eight different tests, the sunscreen returned SPF data of 4, 10, 21, 26, 33, 60, 61, and 64.

[0] https://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/beauty-and-persona...

replies(2): >>45153195 #>>45153271 #
1. evolve2k ◴[06 Sep 25 21:50 UTC] No.45153195[source]▶
Unhelpful, I’d say avoid these brands until they get their house in order; this is a major scandal and the market should be punishing those who clearly did not cover their basic duty of care when selling products that claimed to offer specific SPF sun protection.

While true there could be a process issue, it’s very clearly incumbent on manufacturers to correctly prepare and test their product before sending it on to consumers and representing that the product has properties that it may indeed not have.

Negligence law covers this well.

It’s why you don’t get poisoned too often when you buy food products not prepared in your own home.

replies(1): >>45153340 #
2. summarity ◴[06 Sep 25 22:10 UTC] No.45153340[source]▶
Exactly, especially since some brands initially pushed back only to then recall products or fire their labs. Lies all the way to the bottom

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzl41rpdqo