Sunscreen: More Harmful Than The Sun

Is the Sun to Blame? Or is it the Sunscreen?

We have been told the sun is harmful and that we need to protect our skin from its rays. But the chemicals used in sunscreens are actually more harmful to us than the sun; indeed they are harmful to all life on the planet.

Today, we gain insights on the problems with sunscreen and what to do about it from Dr. Elizabeth Plourde, a Clinical Laboratory Scientist and the author of “Sunscreens Biohazard 2: Proof of Toxicity Keeps Piling Up.”

Elizabeth explains, for example, how sunscreens do not prevent skin cancers, but rather promote them. She explains how we absorb the chemicals into our bodies, disrupting our body’s balanced hormone ecosystem. She talks about the problem of sunscreen mixing with chlorine in swimming pools, making them something of a “toxic soup” that is even more detrimental to the body.

Elizabeth also explains why spray sunscreens are particularly dangerous and why zinc oxide isn’t a particularly good type of protection, either. But she does not leave us without hope. She offers a number of ideas for how to get a healthy amount of sun without burning. She describes how we can build up our sun exposure over time, the importance of coconut oil and a diet high in anti-oxidants and the benefits of the skin’s own melanin to provide protection.

Visit Elizabeth’s website: bestemfproducts.com

Sun Studies

Check out the Weston A. Price Foundation website: westonaprice.org

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Listen to the podcast here

Is the Sun to Blame? Or is it the Sunscreen?

We have been told that the sun is harmful and that we need to protect our skin from its rays, but the chemicals used in sunscreens are more harmful to us than the sun. Indeed, they are harmful to all life on the planet. This is episode 374. Our guest is Dr. Elizabeth Plourde. Elizabeth is a clinical laboratory scientist who released her second book on the dangers of sunscreen. It’s called Sunscreens Biohazard 2: Proof of Toxicity Keeps Piling Up.

Elizabeth explains the dangers of sunscreens and how they do not prevent skin cancers but rather promote them. She explains how we absorb the chemicals into our bodies disrupting our balanced hormone ecosystem among other problematic consequences. She also talks about the problem of swimming pools where the chlorine mixes with the chemicals in sunscreen to cause even more damage to the body than each of these would do on their own.

She also explains why spray sunscreens are particularly dangerous for us since we inhale the particles into our lungs, and why zinc oxide isn’t a particularly good type of protection either. That said, Elizabeth does offer ideas for how to get the sun in a healthy way. She describes how we can protect ourselves from burning without the use of sunscreens. We can use coconut oil instead or eat a diet high in antioxidants. We can even allow the skin’s melanin to provide protection.

Before we dive into the conversation, I want to invite you to come to hang with your people in October 2022 in Knoxville. It’s the Wise Traditions Conference, the one that nourishes in every way. There will be nutritious food, inspiration, healing wisdom, new friends and more. I am so excited. Sign up now for the early bird pricing at WiseTraditions.org. The dates are October 21st to 23rd, 2022. Speaking of new friends, we’ve got Catherine Austin Fitts who’s going to be speaking, Tommy John, and other folks in the lineup. You will love to hear them. Register now.

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Visit Elizabeth’s website: BestEMFProducts.com

Check out the Weston A. Price Foundation website: WestonAPrice.org

Register for the Wise Traditions Conference in Knoxville

Check out our sponsors: Bubble & Bee, Paleovalley, Optimal Carnivore

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Welcome to the show, Elizabeth.

Thank you so much. I so appreciate being able to have the opportunity to share my research that everybody in the world needs to know. Thank you.

We spoke some time ago about your first book on sunscreens. In 2019, you published a second one called Sunscreens Biohazard 2: Proof of Toxicity Keeps Piling Up. Why did you decide to write the second book?

It’s because the first book pointed out all the hormonally active sunscreen chemicals that were harming us, harming our reproduction, and harming animals and fish reproduction. It was so absurd. What they did was they switched to what they called kid-safe. It’s zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. It’s not kid-safe. The more I researched to write an article for your Weston Price journal, the more upset I got and wound up with 90 pages on my computer. My husband says, “You’ve got another book there because it’s imperative that people understand these are not kid-safe.” These are also very harmful to the ocean. There is no sunscreen chemical that is safe. There’s none.

I can’t wait to do a deep dive with you into those chemicals because you’re right. Last time, we talked about how there are hormone disruptors in the sunscreens. Now you’re saying that the switch they have made is not for the better, even though they’re advertising it as such. Let’s start with BP-3 or benzophenone-3. Talk to us about what that chemical does.

It’s very hormonally active. It makes the fish intersex. Their ovaries’ material gets mixed up with testicular material. They even call the fish intersex because they even quit spawning. This is what we’re seeing in our kids. Our kids don’t know if they’re boys or girls. There are very strong anti-testosterones in these sunscreens. It’s now in our water. Even if they don’t use sunscreens, they’re drinking it.

It’s absurd what has been allowed to happen. The bottom line is that the sun does not cause melanoma. They have never proven it. The research never has been able to prove that. They have never been able to prove that sunscreens prevent it ever, yet it’s a multimillion-dollar industry around the world destroying ocean life, us and our babies.

Why would they put this chemical? We’re talking about BP-3 specifically. Why would they put that in the sunscreen in the first place? What is it supposed to do?

It’s to block the UVB. The UVB is what causes sunburn. UVB is blocking that. The problem is when you block UVB, you’re blocking your body’s ability to make vitamin D. We have a worldwide vitamin D deficiency disorder. Vitamin D is essential for us. It’s very anticancer. It does many jobs in our bodies. We need vitamin D. Babies are being born with rickets. Rickets came about during the Industrial Revolution when mothers and kids didn’t get outside to get vitamin D. Rickets was a terrible thing until they finally realized it was the sun that helped us create our vitamin D. They started putting vitamin D into foods to help promote that too.

Sunscreens are giving everyone a false sense of security.

It’s like we have built this little bunker to shield ourselves from the sun, but the bunker is doing us more harm than the sun itself.

There’s more harm to the planet also. All ocean life needs sunlight. All these sunscreen chemicals block them from getting the sunlight because it forms this film over the ocean. I don’t know if you’ve seen it but it’s horrible. I learned to scuba dive years ago and saw the gorgeous corals, the beautiful fish, and the great turtles. Now, the corals are dying, the fish aren’t as pretty, and the turtles have huge tumors on their backs. What we have done is a tragedy. The other thing that’s absurd is that it’s in the water. The fish absorb the sunscreen. When we eat the fish, we’re eating sunscreen because it’s in their muscles.

It’s so alarming. Let’s get back to some of the specifics on the chemicals. I noticed in your book that you mentioned cinnamates, which have the abbreviation of OMG, which I find very appropriate. It’s OMG and OG. Talk to us about what cinnamates do.

Each chemical has its own toxicity. All of them are toxic to life and reproduction, especially. They get into mother’s milk. Our babies are drinking them. This is what we’ve got to stop. It harms almost every level of our body because these are toxic chemicals that we were not designed to have on our bodies at all in any way, shape or form.

Are they all then concocted in some laboratory somewhere?

Yes, they are. The thing that gets me too is that I read an autobiography of Agatha Christie, the famous mystery writer who took a worldwide tour in the 1920s and went to Hawaii. She said it was so strange because everybody there smelled like coconuts. They had already learned that coconut oil itself would protect them from the sun. There are all types of foods and antioxidants like all the reds, purples, and deeply colored foods that help protect us.

Our bodies are designed so that the antioxidants come up in the skin. When solar radiation hits the skin, the antioxidants come up and protect the skin from any damage. When you start turning red and burning, you’re out of antioxidants. It’s that simple. We just need to replace the antioxidant. If we will use antioxidants in our diet, which I know your whole organization is so into a healthy diet, the antioxidants are part of protecting the skin from the sun instead of destroying ocean life and harming our babies. The more I study, the more staggered I am that this has been allowed to happen. The pharmaceutical companies that are making millions of dollars off this are not about to tell you that the research is very clear. They have never proven the sun causes melanoma and sunscreens prevent it ever.

I’m so glad you mentioned diet because I do want to talk about some solutions in the next part of our conversation. I do have one more question before we get to that. I understand from your book primarily that spraying on sunscreen is even worse than slathering it on. Every time at the beach, I get a whiff of it downwind if somebody is spraying it on. Talk to us about what can happen when you use sprayed sunscreen.

You’re breathing it in. It goes into those tiny little cells in the lungs. We don’t want to breathe this into our bodies. It goes faster to our brains when we’re breathing it in and causes damage up there. The spray sunscreen should be banned because you’re right. If you get downwind of it, you’re inhaling it. The people who are using it and the whole family are inhaling it.

WT 374 | Sunscreen — Sunscreens Biohazard 2: Proof of Toxicity Keeps Piling Up

I imagine this would be especially dangerous for the little ones.

Absolutely. They don’t have the immunity that we have built up.

Their brains are still developing.

This is true. They’re developing until the age of 25. We’re harming their brains with the sunscreens. All the chemicals are in all the products, clothing and foods. We’re harming ourselves on a mass level.

You mentioned zinc oxide. That surprised me because some people in my health circles think, “That’s a natural option to slather on some zinc of some sort.” Is that still not good? Can you explain why?

That’s the whole second book. Everything in there is talking about how bad zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are. They’re very bad. They go to the brain. For it not to be a white paste, they bring it down in size to trick the eye so it doesn’t see it. That’s down to nano and micro size. They say that if you can’t see it, it’s down at that size. It’s 1/5000ths that damage our human hair. They’re saying, “We’re only micro. We’re not nano.”

Micro causes as much damage as nano. They’re trying to fool people with that. Tragically, there has been some banning. Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, and other places tried to ban it. What they’re replacing it with is zinc oxide. They have it in the planes and hotels. The zinc oxide kills the phytoplankton in the ocean. That’s the bottom of the food chain. You’re killing the bottom of the food chain of the ocean with zinc oxide.

It reminds me of what happened with BPA when people started saying, “This industrial chemical used to make plastic water bottles is bad for us.” The producers started making other types of materials. They’re still bad. It’s just a different name. People think, “It doesn’t have BPA plastic. I’m okay.”

They substituted BPS, which is just as toxic. They’re not putting that on the labels.

Let’s go back to solutions. You mentioned diet. I noticed that in your book, you spent quite a bit of time explaining our body’s protective mechanism, melanin. Can you describe that a little bit to us?

Melanin is good for us. It’s very protective. This is why melanoma has increased in white-skinned people ever since sunscreens were introduced. That was the late 1970s. Melanoma has increased year to year but there has been no increase in the darker or Black population because they have so much melanin that it protects the skin from any damage from the radiation from the sun. This is a problem for them. It’s so protective that they can’t make enough vitamin D to be protective. Babies of dark-skinned people are still being born sometimes with rickets because there’s not enough vitamin D for their bones to form good and solid.

Are you saying their natural melanin is so protective that it’s also impeding the absorption of vitamin D?

We need to be in the sun to gradually tan because that’s the melanin and that’s protecting it. Our bodies are so well-made. That’s a protective mechanism that was put into our bodies to protect us from having harm. We need to do that. We need to start in the spring and start getting a little bit more exposure all the time to gradually increase that melanin.

The sun is essential for us. We evolved with sunshine. All the fish in the ocean evolved with sunshine. We need the sign that has a lot of benefit that our whole body needs. And when we block it, we’re really harming ourselves.

Would you even give this advice to the most fair-skinned among us with blue eyes and blonde hair?

Absolutely. I’ve had many people come up to me. Even one woman showed me her arm and said, “I used to blister in fifteen minutes in the Mexican sun. I got back from two weeks in Mexico. All I did was eat a high-antioxidant diet and I barely turned color.” It’s the same concept of how these antioxidants in our skin protect us from radiation.

We need to have a diet that’s high in antioxidants and gradually expose ourselves to the sun so we can build up the melanin in our skin and have that natural response. What else can we do to protect ourselves from burning?

In my first book, Sunscreens – Biohazard: Treat as Hazardous Waste, I have a very long detailed chapter on all the foods that have been proven to protect from solar radiation. It’s all the brightly colored reds, purples, and deep leafy greens that do protect it. I was amazed. All the spices are extremely protective.

I get the idea from your book and this conversation that you believe that sunscreen is worse for our health than the sun.

What it’s doing is giving you a false sense of security. You’re not burning but you’re absorbing all the infrared rays, which go deeper and cause damage to the skin. It’s like a fool’s errand. It’s the wrong thing to do because it allows you to sit in the sun 2, 3 or 4 times longer than you would normally do because you would be out and turning pink and burning. This is the problem. This is why melanomas climbed since they were introduced.

Do you think the sunscreen itself is more carcinogenic also than the sun?

They’re toxic chemicals. I cannot believe that all these chemicals we’re being exposed to are very toxic. They’re not human. They’re chemicals that are altering so many things inside our bodies. There’s no way to keep track of it and no way to look at all of the different changes that are happening.

What would you say to the person who says, “There are chemicals in everything. Everything is a chemical compound. Perhaps you’re overreacting to this one product.”

They tell you to put it on every hour or two hours. If you keep putting that on your skin over and over again all summer long, you’re putting massive amounts of chemicals on your body. Your skin absorbs it. They try to say, “You don’t absorb it.” That’s not true. They find it in the kidneys, the liver, the brain, and the testicles. They find these chemicals everywhere throughout the body and then try to say that you’re not absorbing them.

That brings us to the subject of skin penetration of the solar rays too. How deep do the UVB solar rays go in the body?

They’re barely on the surface. That’s why they cause the burn. That’s why you block your ability to make vitamin D because that’s from that UVB on the surface cells of the skin. The UVA goes deeper and then the infrared goes much deeper.

Do those help the body produce melanin? Is that part of what happens if you let yourself be exposed to the sun naturally?

It’s only the UVB that makes you produce the melanin. It’s not the others. It’s the UVB that was blocking.

Those solar rays that are penetrating at different levels all have their purpose in the body, don’t they?

The sun is essential for us. We evolved with sunshine. All the fish in the ocean evolved with sunshine. We need the sun. It has a lot of benefits that our whole body needs. When we block it, we’re harming ourselves. One of the things that is proving that the sun is not causing melanoma is sailors on ships. The ones with the inside job have more melanoma than the ones doing the work on the outside. We need it because the sunshine is very anticancer essentially because we make the vitamin D and the vitamin D is anticancer.

That’s the opposite of what everyone thinks. I’m happy to report from my time at the beaches that a lot of parents are avoiding the sunscreen, but I’m unhappy to report that they’re putting long sleeves on the kids. They’re still trying to block the sun in one way, shape or form. At least they’re not putting the cream on the kids but they’re still stopping the sun’s healing rays.

That would be good right at the beginning of summer. You expose a little bit more so that they can gradually build up their tan to protect themselves rather than have them burn right away on the first day at the beach. There’s a fine line there on helping the kids get the benefit of the sun. Here in California where I live, teachers stand at the door and remind the kids to put on sunscreen to go out for a fifteen-minute recess, which makes no sense that this has been allowed to happen.

We really need to be in the sun to gradually tan because that’s the melanin and that’s protecting it.

The commercials that these pharmaceutical companies that make the sunscreens have put out are incredibly persuasive. It’s propaganda because they want their multimillion dollars. One of the women who helped me edit my two books had finished editing my second book. She calls me and goes, “I saw a commercial. We’ve got to use sunscreen.” That’s how convincing this propaganda is.

In other words, she had read all of your content and she was still persuaded by this commercial.

They spend a lot of money on commercials too, “How can we convince people?” It’s such a belief that the sun is what’s causing cancers and melanoma, instead of the sun is healthy and we need to be in it.

It’s an entrenched belief. I try to say a little something when I’m with people. I was with some people at a park. This one guy was like, “I should put on the sunscreen.” I said, “Not necessarily.” I tried to explain some of these things but people have short attention spans, so it wasn’t easy. Going back to your book, I noticed that you also talk not just about the rates of cancer or avoidance of the sun and how this can be leading to cancer, but also about the use of sunscreens and how detrimental they are in that way. You go so far as to say that sunscreen may cause DNA damage. Can you talk to us about that a little bit?

The kid-safe one or the hormonally active ones cause DNA damage. Nobody knows. We’re not twenty years out to see what the outcome of that is. You can’t damage the DNA without causing extreme harm to the body.

That leads me to the next chapter where you talked about swimming pools and how filled they are with sunscreen. I can just imagine. If everyone is slathering on sunscreen and then jumping in the pool, then it all comes off in there.

I moved to Santa California many years ago to an area that has 22 pools that are open 24 hours a day, 12 months a year. I did that deliberately so I could swim every day because I love swimming. It’s so good for us. Many years ago, it was fine but now that sunscreens are in the pool, I can’t swim in them. I get such a headache. I leave the pool. I have had such a headache for hours because it’s all in the water there. When you’ve got a lot of different people with a lot of brands of sunscreen chemicals, it is a toxin-filled pool. The chlorine alters the sunscreen chemicals. Some of them become even toxic poisons. Our kids are swimming at a level that is astronomical.

What other ideas do you have for getting this message out?

It’s difficult. I’ve been trying to do this. Sunscreen bans are happening in Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, and then Palau off Indonesia. They have banned at least ten of the chemicals, which is great because their whole survival depends on their ocean life. It’s a bunch of tiny little islands. Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, and all this are only banning a few of the chemicals, which is meaningless because all the other chemicals are bad for ocean life. The last time I was in Key West, there was nothing left of their corals. It’s all brown. It’s horrible to look at.

I imagine sometimes when people look at it, they want to blame something else, “It must be climate change or something like that.”

That’s true. The oceans have not heated up. They heated up in 1999 due to solar flares, not due to anything we did. With these toxic chemicals in the water, the corals between the warmer water and the toxic chemicals, we did have a lot of coral death around the world, but we didn’t have coral death in the islands and areas that didn’t have heavy tourists.

If they didn’t have sunscreen in the water, the coral didn’t die. It’s not heating up. The people are trying to prove that it’s due to climate change and changes in ocean temperature. They take down time-lapse photographers or cameras and put them on the ocean floor. You watch the coral die. They’re going down there with sunscreen on themselves. The coral dies in 96 hours.

They have proven that. The ocean is not warmer. I moved to Southern California many years ago because I wanted to swim in the ocean every day from May to October. I did that for years and years but in the last 10 to 20 years, I haven’t been able to because it’s too cold. The ocean temperature is colder. It’s colder all the way to China. We’re not in global warming at all.

Apart from your personal experience with scuba diving and seeing the damage to marine life, you’ve done significant research. Have you seen people who have stopped using sunscreen and seen their health improve or able to protect their skin naturally? Talk to us a little bit about some of the anecdotal successes you’ve seen.

It’s exciting to talk to very White Irish. Usually, the Irish have the whitest skin. It’s exciting to talk to them to have them experience the fact that they can be in the sun with a high antioxidant diet. It’s amazing. Diet is everything. If we eat what’s right for our bodies, we can survive a lot and not have to resort to toxic chemicals. The thing about that is that people need to start that a couple of weeks before they go to the beach or someplace where there’s a strong sun.

The antioxidant diet is very beneficial for all electromagnetic radiation. All our cell phones and iPads are causing oxidation damage to our bodies. Every cell in our body is being oxidized from these radiations. The solar radiations cause oxidation. The antioxidant diet is very beneficial for solar radiation and not having to use sunscreen, but extremely beneficial for all the damage that we’re being exposed to with all these cell phones.

We went into detail on exactly what you’re referring to in terms of an antioxidant diet in the previous episode. It’s so wonderful to know that our bodies are so well-designed to manage the sun, benefit from its healing rays, and protect ourselves from burning so naturally without chemical intervention. I love this so much. I want to ask you the question I like to pose at the end. If the audience could do one thing to improve their health, what would you recommend that they do?

Change their minds. The sun is harmful. Sunscreens are beneficial. Both are lies. We need to abolish that but also bring in the antioxidants. Get your kids out in the sun but also give them a lot of antioxidants before you get them in the sun. Do that for weeks before you go anywhere. I would love to see juicing stations at beaches but you need to start in the antioxidant before that for several weeks to get these antioxidants into your body.

I love that idea and all the things you suggested like changing people’s minds, leading by example, loading up on the antioxidants, and the juicing station at the beach especially. Elizabeth, thank you so much for your time, your insights, and your book. Thanks again.

Thank you very much.

NOTE: Zinc oxide and titanium oxide cause DNA damage and who knows what can arise out of that as it depends on where the damage occurs. They also harm all of our organs and cross the blood brain barrier, causing all types of havoc. The antioxidant astaxanthin is available in health food stores and provides protection. Start it weeks before you plan to be out in the sun for extended periods. All the antioxidants work together synergistically so it is best to incorporate as many types as possible throughout your daily diet. This is also important to protect from the electromagnetic radiation that also oxidizes us. See: https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/modern-diseases/staying-on-top-of-oxidative-stress/

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Our guest was Dr. Elizabeth Plourde. To find out more about her resources and her book, go to her website BestEMFProducts.com. You can find me at HolisticHilda.com. In a Letter to the Editor from a journo, this person says, “Another useless test. A pharmacist told me two interesting things about the COVID-19 antibody test. First, the vaxxed are showing lots of false-positive antibody results. They show that they have antibodies when they don’t.”

“The second thing she said was that many people who have tested positive for COVID and even had all the symptoms test negative for antibodies. Many who never had a single symptom test positive for antibodies. The takeaway is none of this makes any sense. I already didn’t believe that the antibodies could mean much if the virus theory is flawed, to begin with, but now I know this is the case. It goes to show how imperfect modern medical science is.”

This is a letter from Michelle in Texas who’s a Chapter Leader. Michelle, thank you for your letter. If you would like to write us a Letter to the Editor, feel free to write us at Info@WestonAPrice.org and put Letter to the Editor in the subject line. We would love to hear from you on any topic. Thank you so much for reading, my friend. Stay well and remember that all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

About Dr. Elizabeth Plourde

Dr. Elizabeth Plourde is a Clinical Laboratory Scientist and North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner. When her research revealed that the oceans’ gorgeous coral were dying off due to the toxicity of sunscreens and that the sunscreens actually promote melanoma, she wrote two books to help the world understand how sunscreen chemicals are toxic to all life. Her documentation clearly shows how a high antioxidant diet protects the skin from the oxidation from solar radiation, and that it also protects from the oxidations created by the massive amount of electromagnetic radiations we are now exposed to. She is devoting her life to bringing awareness to these pressing dangers to our society.