It all comes down to Banana Boat sunscreen, and some are wondering why the product isn’t being pulled from shelves.
So, something is up with Banana Boat sunscreen. Recent stories, including one of a baby in Eastern Canada, tell the tale of children wearing sunscreen, only to experience scalding burns and blisters on their skin after putting the stuff on. It looks incredibly painful, and is obviously something no parent would wish their child to go through.
So, what’s happening? Are parents being neglectful? Are they waiting until their kids have already been exposed to the sun, only to apply the protective lotion when it’s too late? Or has the company issuing the sunscreen come up with a bad batch that’s causing a wild chemical burn?
Consumers don’t have conclusive answers, but some experts are guessing that the true answer lies someplace in between.
The bad burns have occurred on people using Banana Boat sunscreen in Australia and Canada.
In Aussie land, they happened around last Christmas time and soon thereafter of this year, and 26 complaints have been made about the product in Canada since spring. All are related to the sunscreen somehow causing a reaction on the skin, from general redness and swelling, all the way up to the third degree burns experienced by 14 month old Kyla Fudge.
Part of all the uproar is that, for its part, Banana Boat still has the offending product on the market. The company claims their products can’t cause any chemical burns because all of them have a neutral pH.
Allergic Reaction?
Is it true? Some experts are saying it could be. What could be happening, they believe, is a photo allergy. This can happen when a person who has a sensitivity to one or more ingredients in a product applies it, and the exposure to the sun triggers a reaction, or makes it worse.
According to webmd.com, certain ingredients present in Banana Boat sunscreen – and other common sunscreens- have been found to cause photo allergies, including avobenzone, octinoxate, and octocrylene. So maybe these are the culprits.
But some questions remain. Why are so many people suddenly falling victim to this rare allergy, that’s said to actually only affect about 1% of any given population? And why weren’t people reporting these same burns during the summer last year?
People Catching on Fire
It’s not the first time Banana Boat has come under scrutiny. Back in 2012, the product came under fire for, well, literally causing people to catch on fire. Don’t get us wrong- wearing sunscreen is a good habit to have, however maybe not when barbecuing or standing close to any other open flame, when it comes to this brand.
Banana Boat recalled more than 20 million units of its Ultramist spray on sunscreen, in this case after people-namely men- were spraying it on, staying topless and then lighting up the bbq to cook dinner.
The sunscreen hadn’t completely dried on their skin and it caught on fire. They caught on fire. Scary stuff.
The thing is that in the cases, only about 5 individuals had to report the problem before the product was recalled. With the present issue of possible chemical burns, upwards of 20 people in multiple countries have reported a major problem, yet the product still remains for sale on shelves.
What can consumers do besides wait and put pressure on government bodies to force a recall?
Give a different product a try. Your personal safety may be at risk.
Photo credits: Leonid Eremeychuk/Bigstock; dolgachov/Bigstock; Marko_Marcello/Bigstock
