Te Radar: Bright ideas

Te Radar has some novel ideas for alternatives to sunscreen. Photo / Getty Images

There are some excellent ways to stay out of the sun that also double as population control methods.

For a while this summer I took to walking about under an umbrella, which was useful for providing shade and handy for Auckland's typically inclement summer weather. Then my arm got tired, so I decided to wear an umbrella hat.

I wasn't worried about rain. I wore it because I like to be sun-smart. The problem is that I'd also attempted to become sunscreen-smart. My first mistake was glancing at headlines intimating that the cancer sunscreens prevent might be replaced by the cancer that some believe they cause. The second mistake was reading the articles.

There are two types of sunscreen, they stated. I had assumed these were, firstly, the type you have when you don't need any and, secondly, the type that you left at home resulting in you not having any when you do need some.

But no, they were referring to the physical and chemical types. Physical types create an actual physical barrier. That seemed logical. Some of these now use nanomaterials, added to make them seem clear after applying, rather than having you appear as if you had slathered yourself in house paint.
The chemical types absorb the sun's ultraviolet radiation and subjects it to some kind of chemical reaction that prevents damage. That sounds like Science, and therefore must be a good thing.

However studies of the sunscreens' effects on animals have proved worrying, not least for the animals involved. However, the animal studies involved injecting the various chemicals, forcing the animals to inhale them, bathe in them, eat them, or a combination of all of the above. Not many of us will be doing that, and nor indeed should the poor lab animals.

We may scoff at the wrist-to-ankle togs of the past but I can't help but think they had it right."

But they are not the only creatures sunscreen endangers. Researchers from an Italian university have estimated that 6000 tons of sunscreen washes off tourists onto coral reefs each year. This results in understandably stressed coral that is prone to bleaching. Choose a reef-safe sunscreen or, as I like to call it, a wetsuit.

Worse, some researchers claim the various chemicals can react in water to create new compounds, which harm phytoplankton. Microscopic algae, they are the basis of the ocean's food chain, and provide us with half of the oxygen we breathe, so you could say they're pretty useful.

I did consider making my own sunscreen from one of the innumerable recipes on the internet. That too is fraught with danger. I can barely follow a recipe for toast, let alone a complicated concoction of chemicals. Then I read a report that some internet sunscreens actually make you more susceptible to burning. Truly the internet makes lab rats of us all.

Little wonder I look enviously at children in their full-length sun-smart suits at the beach. Why don't they have them for adults? We may scoff at the wrist to ankle togs of the past but I can't help but think they had it right.

For now though I'm prepared to take the risk and slather myself in the lotions and sprays because the other option is simply staying indoors and risking the rigours of Vitamin D deficiency, which can cause depression, as anyone who experienced the weather leading up to Christmas would well know.

The best advice is to stay in the shade and not spend too much time reading research articles on the dangers of danger preventions. After all, one of the last claims I read was that sunscreen might affect male fertility. I have no idea if that's true, but what I do know is that the greatest danger to any breeding I may be contemplating is wearing an umbrella hat.

Like what you see? For weekly Element news sign up to our newsletter. We're also on Facebook and Twitter.