Doctors slam celebrities for peddling deadly misinformation in social media posts that claim SPF lotions are 'toxic' and 'more cancerous than the sun'

Young people are risking skin cancer by following advice of influencers urging against using SPF, experts have warned. 

Videos claiming sun tan lotion contains chemicals that are ‘more cancerous than the sun’, have racked up tens of thousands of views on TikTok. 

Other anti-SPF proponents on Instagram have warned it does ‘more harm than good’. 

Instead you should ‘build up your melanin to handle the sun’. 

Melanin is the natural pigment produced by the skin in response to the suns rays — responsible for producing a tan — that protect it from UV damage.

However experts today advised there was ‘no evidence’ to support the trend.

At best, it could cause sunburn or premature ageing. Forsaking SPF may also lead to an increased risk of melanoma skin cancer. 

Dr Bav Shergill a consultant dermatologist at the Queen Victoria Hospital, London and spokesperson for the British Association of Dermatologists, told MailOnline: ‘Sunscreens are a safe and effective way to protect your skin from burning and other forms of sun damage. 

‘Millions of people have used sunscreen over many decades so we can be confident about their safety profile.

‘For people with lighter skin tones, there is a common misconception that you can build up a base tan which will protect you. 

‘A tan is a reaction to sun damage, so to develop a base tan, you have to damage your skin.

‘Evidence also suggests that a “base tan” offers the equivalent of SPF 4 – not enough to provide meaningful protection.’

He added: ‘If you don’t want to use sunscreen, you need to be really on top of other forms of sun protection. 

‘Make good use of shade, minimise the time you spend out in the sun when the UV index is three or above, and wear clothing that covers your skin. 

‘These tend to be very effective ways of protecting your skin – though ideally you would use sunscreen in addition to these options as a final line of defence.’

In one Instagram story, posted by influencer Lauyrn Goodman, she told her near 200,000 followers ‘you’re brought up to wear sun cream [to] protect yourself’, but ‘everything you think you know isn’t correct’. 

Instead ‘training your skin is key’, the 33-year-old who has two children with the married England footballer Kyle Walker, said. 

She added: ‘It’s about building up your melanin to handle the sun as well slowly.

‘I did it with K [her oldest daughter] and will do it with little girlie.’ 

Responding to a comment from a follower who advised that UV rash vests offer ‘more protection’ than cream, she also said ‘skin is so much better in the sun’. 

Meanwhile, US influencer Kirby Long, who boasts 121,000 Instagram followers, admitted she does not ‘really ever wear sun cream’ and ‘believes it does more harm than good’. 

In another post, personal trainer and influencer James Middleton also told Instagram: ‘The sun is incredibly powerful so it’s important to be safe in it but it’s also one of the best things for your health.’

He added: ‘If you’re wearing sunscreen make sure it’s NON-TOXIC. Mineral sunscreen is the best option’. 

But Dr Richard Parsons, a senior lecturer in biochemical toxicology at Kings College London, today warned that any sun burn still raises the cancer and long term damage risk.

He told MailOnline: ‘Building a base tan is fine. But you have still got to have that level of protection. 

‘If you burn you are still going to increase your chances of getting those DNA mutations which can increase your risk of cancer. 

‘As you get older, you can get lost elasticity in the skin you can get skin damage like wrinkles. So that’s actually lasting damage.’

He added: ‘We’re not talking “I’ve got a real bad sunburn, but it’s ok it’ll be gone in a few weeks”. That will have lasting implications.’

Influencers, however, are not alone in promoting anti-sunscreen use. 

In April, ex-The Hills star and podcaster Kristin Cavallari, who has five million followers on Instagram alone, revealed she does not ever wear SPF.

Speaking on her podcast ‘Let’s Be Honest’ she told Ryan Monahan, reportedly a ‘practitioner of functional and eastern medicine’ any time she does an interview, ‘I get a lot of s*** when I admit that I don’t.’

Cavallari referred to Mr Monahan — who is based in Los Angeles — as her doctor, but he does not hold a doctor of medicine degree.

Encouraging him to talk ‘about the health benefits of the sun and why we maybe don’t need sunscreen’, he responded: ‘The sun is life giving and nourishing.’

He also claimed that instead of sunscreen, eating ‘an anti-inflammatory diet’, building up an ‘antioxidant reservoir’ in the body and a developing a ‘base coat’ through incremental sun exposure can allow the skin to tolerate the sun without burning.

Other anti-SPF proponents have also claimed popular sunscreen ingredient, oxybenzone, causes skin cancer and fear that other sunscreen ingredients are ‘hormone disruptors’.

One TikTok video, by @theholisticbiologist who boasts 30,000 followers, said: ‘Everyone at the beach is smothering themselves with specific sunscreens that are more cancerous than the sun.’

She added: ‘If your sunscreen contains oxybenzone, avobenzone, octinoxate or titanium dioxide, throw it out.’ 

Studies have long shown sun creams can contain both mineral and chemical UV filters.  

Mineral UV filters mainly remain on the skin’s surface and form a physical barrier to deflect UV rays before they penetrate your skin.

Chemical UV filters, meanwhile, absorb UV light and convert it into heat energy. 

As well as being used in sun creams, they may be added to other personal care products, such as moisturisers. 

Some research on animals, mainly mice, has indicated many commonly used chemical UV filters in high quantities could be endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) — chemicals that interfere with hormones — such as mimicking natural oestrogen found in our bodies. 

Lifetime exposure to oestrogen is an established risk factor for cancers, including breast. 

But no research on humans has backed this up.

Experts today also cautioned such products also have safety levels to ensure any such compounds wouldn’t cause ‘significant issues’. 

Dr Parsons told MailOnline: ‘It’s important to realise that a lot of studies are actually designed with concentrations or dosage, which actually tend to exceed what you’d normally get in products. 

‘Now, a lot of these products do have safety levels. They know a lot about toxicology data. 

‘You wouldn’t have levels of these compounds in these products that would cause significant issues. 

‘What happens in animals in a very controlled environment, such as constant dosing, isn’t always what happens in humans.

‘For instance, when you slap on sun cream, most people don’t put it on as swiftly as they should. All toxicity is related to dose exposure.’

He added: ‘Nothing is safe. Everything is toxic in the right amount. And the problem of course with endocrine disruptors, is also the amount of data in long term studies.’

The NHS encourages everyone to use at least SPF 30 protection.

Regular users of sun cream with SPF 15 or higher can cut their risk of melanoma — the most deadly type of skin cancer — in half, studies have also suggested. 

Around 15,000 Brits and 100,000 Americans are diagnosed with melanoma each year, the most common form of skin cancer. It is the fifth most common cancer in the UK. 

The incidence in Britain has risen faster than any other common cancer. 

Increased UV exposure from the sun or tanning beds, has been blamed for the increase.

Despite huge strides forward in treatment that has seen survival leap from less than 50 per cent to more than 90 per cent in the past decade, it still kills more than 2,000 people a year. 

Melanoma is often fast growing and can quickly burrow through the skin and into the blood vessels beneath. 

Once the cancer cells get into the bloodstream, the disease can spread throughout the body. 

Around 90 per cent of all visible changes to the skin are caused by photo-aging, the Skin Cancer Foundation also advises. 

UV rays can penetrate the first two layers of skin — the epidermis and dermis — and damage cells’ DNA.

Damage in the top epidermis layer causes the body to produce melanin, as part of its attempt to block the sun from continuing its assault.

This usually results in the body tanning, as the substance produces a darker pigment in the skin.

Exposure to UVA waves, which have a longer wavelength and penetrate deeper than to the other form of UV, UVB, leads to damage in the middle dermis layer over time.

It comes as one of the country’s top diet gurus last week came under fire after suggesting people don’t need to wear sun cream all year round. 

Citing research on mice claiming vitamin D levels may be important for cancer immunity, Professor Tim Spector said SPF 50 ‘blocks our natural defences’. 

One of the study’s own authors, however, labelled his comments a ‘blatant misrepresentation of our work’. Other medics branded the advice ‘reckless’ and ‘irresponsible’.  

Yet dermatologists agreed with Professor Spector, who doubled down on his claim, that year-round use of SPF 50 is usually unnecessary.