Family: Household chemicals & care
Mineral-filter sunscreen
The filters reflect and scatter UV; in most studies they do not pass beyond the outer layer of the skin.
Overview
Mineral filters — titanium dioxide and zinc oxide — work by reflecting and scattering ultraviolet light rather than absorbing it. For titanium dioxide, most human and animal studies show that the nanoparticles do not pass beyond the stratum corneum to viable cells and do not reach the general circulation, on healthy or on compromised skin. The consumer safety committee classifies it as a non-sensitiser, mild or non-irritant, finds no evidence of carcinogenicity, mutagenicity or reproductive toxicity after dermal exposure, and considers it safe at concentrations up to 25%.
Production method
Quality indicators
- State of the evidence
A body of work and a committee opinion; no dedicated absorption trial
More detail
This side rests on a review pooling human and animal studies and on a scientific committee opinion. The platform found no trial for mineral filters equal in design to the one run on organic filters — with blood sampling under maximal-use application. That is a difference in the shape of the evidence, not in its conclusion.
Health-related indicators
- What reaches the body
In most studies it does not pass beyond the outer layer of the skin
More detail
For titanium dioxide, most human and animal studies show that the nanoparticles do not penetrate beyond the stratum corneum to viable cells and do not reach the general circulation, on healthy or compromised skin. The consumer safety committee considers it safe for dermal use at concentrations up to 25%.
- What happens in water
The platform found no comparable data
Source needed
Why there is no source
The source is missing by the nature of the case: the review of what happens to filters in water examines the accumulation of ORGANIC filters and reports no comparable observations for mineral ones. An absence of observations is not the same as an observation of absence, and the platform does not present one as the other.
What is nearby
Sources and evidence
Sources by kind of evidence
REVIEWSystematic review2
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