Applying sunscreen prior to outdoor daytime activities has been shown to prevent skin damage by protecting against UV radiation damage. Unfortunately, it has been shown that a wide variety of sunscreen active ingredients accumulate beyond the FDA’s .5 ng/ml limit within human plasma. Given that the long-term health consequences of their accumulation remains to be fully understood, it is important for physicians to understand what methods exist to rid the human body of these chemicals. We plan to perform a systematic review using PubMed, Web of Science and Embase following PRISMA guidelines using the search terms “sunscreen” and “removal or decontamination or decontaminant or skin decontamination”. All experimental articles in human models that research the efficacy of decontamination methods to remove sunscreen active ingredients from the skin will be included. Results will be presented in a table in column versus row format demonstrating active ingredient versus method of decontamination. There exists at least six active ingredients (avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, octisalate, and octinoxate) which may persist in human plasma and potentially multiple methods of decontamination. Our hope is that the results gathered from this study will provide investigators and clinicians with a better understanding of how to most effectively decontaminate the skin from these active ingredients and under what conditions this decontamination may be clinically appropriate

References

Matta MK, Florian J, Zusterzeel R, Pilli NR, Patel V, Volpe DA, Yang Y, Oh L, Bashaw E, Zineh I, Sanabria C, Kemp S, Godfrey A, Adah S, Coelho S, Wang J, Furlong LA, Ganley C, Michele T, Strauss DG. Effect of Sunscreen Application on Plasma Concentration of Sunscreen Active Ingredients: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2020 Jan 21;323(3):256-267. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.20747. Erratum in: JAMA. 2020 Mar 17;323(11):1098. PMID: 31961417; PMCID: PMC6990686.