Exposing humans to ultraviolet radiation to test sunscreen effectiveness should be phased out, according to scientists and cancer experts.

The recommendation from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), Cancer Council Victoria and RMIT University is backed by research published in the journal Trends in Analytical Chemistry.

The paper reviews sunscreen ingredients, regulations and testing globally, and proposes a roadmap for the development of reproducible human-free sunscreen testing.

Testing sunscreens on humans is the current international standard to rate UV protection performance. This testing involves volunteers wearing a sunscreen and being exposed to artificial solar UV to measure the performance by the time taken for sunburn to occur.

However, ARPANSA Chief Radiation Health Scientist Dr Rick Tinker said this has ethical challenges as it exposes people to cancer-causing UV radiation.

“Sunscreens are an important part of sun protection and preventing serious sun damage to people — 2 in 3 Australians will develop skin cancer by the age of 70 — but we shouldn’t be risking people’s long-term health to test the effectiveness of sunscreens,” Tinker said.

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