Kiwis love the beach and should be able to trust the sunscreen labels' claims. Photo / File
Kiwis love the beach and should be able to trust the sunscreen labels' claims. Photo / File
It's hot. So hot that people with fair skin can get sunburned in a matter of minutes.
Kiwis love the outdoors and in summer, when the temperatures start rising, we flock to the beach, the rivers, the deck, and we spend hours outdoors watching sport and playing in thesun.
A health campaign back in the 80s in Australia and New Zealand urged people to slip, slop, slap "slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, and slap on a hat" when they go out into the sun in order to prevent skin cancer.
People listened. But as usual good old New Zealand laws didn't come to the party. Unlike Australia, there is no mandatory standard for sunscreens in New Zealand.
Basically anyone can make a sunscreen and say on the back of it that it's SPF whatever.
I've written on this subject before and Consumer NZ is on a mission for a mandatory sunscreen standard and regular product testing. Good for them, it's good to know someone cares.
In a country where melanoma, one of the most serious skin cancers, has the highest incidence in the world, you would think that by now there would be some rules around the production of sunscreen.
There are rules around just about everything in life these days, yet something as important as protecting ourselves and our children from the sun is ignored.
Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.
This month Consumer New Zealand released its annual sunscreen testing results. It found that out of the nine products tested, three didn't meet their SPF claims.
Not only that — all three of them failed the 2020 test. That's not on.
They are Natural Instinct Invisible Natural Sunscreen SPF30, Sukin Suncare Sheer Touch Facial Sunscreen Untinted SPF30 and Banana Boat Daily Protect Sunscreen Lotion SPF50+.
So what happens now? Do these three companies get to keep on making sunscreens that don't do what they claim? They did again this year, so obviously there's nothing to stop them doing it all over again next year.
A member's bill was drawn this year to address concerns but who knows how long that will take.
In the meantime, choose a sunscreen that did pass the Consumer NZ test or one that you have tried and trust.
Come on New Zealand, let's slap this mandate through.
