Guilty as charged. That’s how I’d plead if you charged me with sometimes sending my kids out to play without sunscreen. “But, Your Honor,” (I’d argue in my own defense) “never during the peak hours!” and “There’s no family history of skin cancer!”

But I admit it. I do have a somewhat laissez-faire attitude about sunblock. I guess my approach has been influenced by two main concerns.

I’ve got questions
The first: if they are totally shielded, the children might become deficient in vitamin D. This danger has received a lot of media attention in recent years (See USA Today, Medfinds, and Natural News for just a taste or do a search on Google’s news listing). In a timely coincidence, I see that the National Institute of Health has issued a press release about the topic.)

The second: confusion about sunblock itself. What is in that oddball goop, anyway? What ought to be in it? Is a lotion or a spray better? If known-baddie aluminum has been so prevalent in sunblock, what other dangerous ingredients are there—and how do I avoid them?

Who has answers?
You’d think that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have tight control on this issue, wouldn’t you? Actually, no. It wasn’t until just one year ago, in August 2007, that the FDA even proposed UVA standards for sunscreen, and those rules have not gone into effect. What’s more, they fall far short of the mandatory and comprehensive safety standards that many advocates call for.

Luckily, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has taken on this issue. They can’t help with my first concern. (Perhaps I’ll need to follow up on that NIH press release for that.) But they’ve taken aim at my second concern. While they don’t set or enforce standards, they do call attention to concerns about sunscreen products and educate consumers.

For consumers who are concerned about sunscreen safety, the EWG’s new Shopper’s Guide to Safer Sunscreens is a great place to start.

EWG knows sunblock
In a study of almost 1,000 name-brand sunscreens, EWG found that 4 of 5 contain chemicals that “may pose health hazards” or “don’t adequately protect skin” from sun damage. The group ranks sunscreens into three categories (low hazard, moderate hazard, and high hazard) and assigns a numerical score of 0-10 to indicate level of risk.

The top offenders may surprise you, as they include popular brands like Coppertone, Banana Boat, and Neutrogena. But what’s best about the site is that it is interactive. Click on over and select or type in your sunscreen brand to read EWG’s assessment of its flaws and/or merits. You just may be surprised.

EWG knows sun exposure
In addition to details about particular products, EWG provides a series of helpful tips for getting through the summer with lower risk that may remind you of the “Safe Sun” guidelines summarized on familydoctor.org or the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and others. Drawing on these resources, here’s what you need to know:

1. Protect kids! Keep in mind that too much sun puts children at risk for heat stroke and, later in life, skin cancer.
2. Protect babies! Keep babies younger than six months of age out of direct sunlight.
3. Avoid sunlight during peak hours. Some sources identify “peak hours” as noon to 2 p.m., while others (including EWG) say 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Use your judgment, and be sure to consider the particular details of where you are, including altitude.
4. Use ample sunscreen. Apply your sunblock twenty to thirty minutes before you head outdoors, so that it can absorb into your skin before you’re exposed to the sun’s rays.
5. Reapply sunscreen often. Water will wash it off; the sun will break it down. The protection you start out with will degrade unless you reapply sunscreen as needed. The WHO recommends every 2 hours.
6. Avoid combination products. Skip products that promise built-in bug repellent. While it may seem convenient to only be applying one product, the required reapplications of sunscreen would expose you to higher levels of pesticide than necessary.
7. Wait on the bug spray. EWG encourages a 15-minute wait between applying sunscreen and bug spray, so that less of the pesticide is absorbed into the skin.
8. Buy new sunscreen each year. No one likes to be wasteful, but the active ingredients will degrade in the intervening year. For full protection, use a fresh product—and don’t forget to check EWG’s handy guide so you choose the one that’s safest for your family.

The EWG doesn’t address the vitamin D issue, but it does make me feel confident about my ability to choose a safe sunscreen for my family. I will be giving more thought to our sunblock practices during these last, hot weeks of summer!