Sunscreen May Promote Long-Term Skin Health

Sunscreen May Promote Long-Term Skin Health

ATLANTA--A Canadian study published in the June 14 issueof The Journal of the American Medical Association found that white children wearing 30 SPF sunscreen developed fewer skin blemishes than white children that used no sunscreen. Tracking 458 Vancouver-area schoolchildren between 1993 and 1996, assigned children randomly applied either a sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or no sunscreen at all. It was found that children with freckles benefited the most while using sunscreen, developing 30 to 40 percent fewer moles and blemishes than children in the control group.

The study was sponsored by the British Columbia Health Research Foundation, the Medical Research Council of Canada and Health Canada; the sunscreen was provided by Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals. More information is available atwww.jama.org.