05.16.23
Royal DSM will host its second annual Safer Under the Sun Day, a skin cancer prevention and education event, in Washington DC at the Rayburn House Office Building on June 8.
The focus will be the UV filter innovation pipeline and exploring the need to provide the FDA with additional public resources to utilize alternative regulatory methods to accelerate the introduction of novel UV Filter innovation to the marketplace.
Representatives will include DSM, Beiersdorf, Johns Hopkins University School of Dermatology, Personal Care Products Council and The Skin Cancer Foundation.
“The US is far behind the rest of the world when it comes to the number of approved UV filters available,” said Stephen Wood, senior director, DSM Personal Care and Aroma Ingredients North America. “Currently, there are less than 10 viable UV filters that are approved for formulating broad spectrum and efficacious sunscreens in the US, while other parts of the world have more than 30. Furthermore, no new UV filters have been approved by the FDA for use in sunscreens in over 20 years. This is largely due to UV filters being regulated as OTC drugs in the US, rather cosmetics, as they are in other countries. This classification requires an extensive and complex process that we need to urgently revisit and begin to consider alternative methods if we want to remain an innovation world leader as well as to be able to meet the growing demands of our diverse population in the US by offering a fuller and more robustly inclusive portfolio of UV filter ingredients from which manufacturers as well as consumers an choose.”
Like its Safer Under the Sun Day event, guests will include congressional, government, nonprofit and industry thought leaders to actively engage in facilitating a comprehensive and inclusive conversation to bring about positive change.
Skin Cancer on the Rise in the US
Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the US with 1 in 5 Americans developing it by age 70. More than two people die of skin cancer in the US every hour. Having five or more sunburns in a consumer’s life doubles the risk for melanoma. Despite the proven effectiveness of sunscreens, skin cancer is on the rise. In the past decade, the number of new invasive melanoma cases annually increased by 27%.
Free skin cancer self-check instructions and demonstration, informational brochures and product giveaways will be available at the event.