Washington D.C.-Most people think that by applying a sunscreen with a high SPF rating that they will protect their skin but recent testing shows that many sunscreens are not effective.
The citizens advocate group Environmental Working Group works to investigate and test different products to insure their safety and effectiveness.
EWG has worked to test different brands and types of sunscreens, and their testing has revealed some surprising results.
After testing nearly 1000 different products the Environmental Working Group revealed that about 4 out of 5 brand name types of sunscreens do not provide enough protection for consumers.
The sunscreens either did not perform as advertised and failed to protect consumers or they contain chemicals or other health hazards that would dramatically put users at risk.
The sunscreens that did the worst were the ones that had a high SPF rating of 15 or higher. Nearly 85 percent of these sunscreens did not work as advertised.
The top brand names were not exempt from failing these tests.
Banana Boat, Neutrogena, and Coppertone were the worst performers in EWG tests. Coppertone didn’t have any products that passed the tests, and only 1 of the 103 different products from Banana Boat and Neutrogena passed the stringent tests.