According to an annual report that analyzes more than 2,200 sunscreens available for purchase in 2025, only a quarter of sunscreens on U.S. store shelves provide safe and effective protection from the harmful rays of the sun.
“Our standards include the ability of sunscreens to provide balanced protection against both UVA and UVB rays, and the ability of harmful chemical ingredients in our products,” says David Andrews, Chief Science Officer of the Environmental Working Group, EWG, a consumer organization that has been producing the annual sunscreen guide since 2007.
Released Tuesday, the 2025 Sunscreen Guide lists the best baby and child sunscreens, including the best “Bang for the Buck.” Highly rated daily sunscreen, including a moisturizer with SPF. The best lip balm with SPF. And top recreational sunscreen designed for outdoor activities such as sports and beach time.
“There are nearly 500 products that consumers recommend seeking as their first choice,” Andrews said. “We want people to wear sunscreen and at the same time realize there are other ways to protect their skin. It’s a very effective method to look for shade, wear a wide hat, wear a lightweight long sleeve shirt and pants, especially if you’re worried about sunscreen materials.”
Choosing not to protect your skin from the sun, an idea promoted by Tiktok influencers, should not be an option, according to Dr. Kathleen Suzzi, a dermatology surgeon at Yale School of Medicine.
“Extensive research has shown that ultraviolet rays from the sun are a key cause of skin cancers, such as melanoma. At this point it’s really uncontroversial,” Suzzi told CNN in a previous interview. “UV rays can be found in both UVA and UVB, both of which have been found to damage the DNA of skin cells.”
There are two types of sunscreens: chemicals and minerals. Chemical sunscreens are designed to be absorbed by the skin Chemical reactions absorb ultraviolet rays as energy and disperse them as heat.
A 2019 US Food and Drug Administration tested that seven chemical components, avobenzone, oxybenzone, ocbenzone, ecamsuol, homosalate, octalitate, and octino acid salts, were absorbed into the bloodstream from the skin after a day of use.
The concentration of seven chemicals in the blood increased daily after application and exceeded FDA safety levels one week later. Two chemicals on day 21 – homoate salts and oxybenzone, still above the safety threshold.
Once in the bloodstream, these chemicals can enter the waterways through wastewater, threatening coral reefs and aquatic organisms. Hawaii is a result of the growing devastation of coral reefs. Key West, Florida. The US Virgin Islands; Bonaire; Alba; Palau, a Pacific island, prohibits the use of several chemical sunscreens, particularly oxybenzone.
Oxybenzone is also associated with lower testosterone levels in adolescents, hormonal changes in males, and short pregnancy pregnancy and destruction of baby birth weight.
However, according to EWG’s 2025 screen guide released Tuesday, the use of oxybenzone usage has declined dramatically. Oxybenzone currently belongs to 9% of its products, once it reaches 70% of non-mineral sunscreens, according to Andrews.
The Personal Care Products Council, which represents sunscreen manufacturers, opposed the findings of the report.
“This report hinders consumer disruption and poses serious risks by undermining public confidence in products that are scientifically proven, rigorously tested and highly effective in protecting against harmful UV rays.”
Mineral-based sunscreens behave differently. Instead of being absorbed by the skin, minerals physically deflect and block the sun’s rays. Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are two FDA approved mineral sunscreen ingredients that appear to be harmful to marine ecosystems.
“Of the 2,217 products tested in this year’s report, 43% use zinc oxide or titanium dioxide since only 17% in 2007,” Andrews said. “That’s good news for the consumer and the environment.”
However, some mineral products may contain chemical “boosters” designed to artificially increase the sunscreen coefficient (SPF), the report says.
“Using chemical boosters can lead to lower concentrations of active mineral ingredients at the cost of consumer safety,” Andrews said. “We want to make sure that these sunscreens offer balanced UVA and UVB protection with the SPF advertised on the label.
Some of these boosters, such as salicylic acid solvents and BOS, absorb ultraviolet rays like chemical sunscreen ingredients, Andrews said.
“But they are mainly sold as a solvent that improves how the product feels on the skin and reduces the white casting that mineral sunscreen can leave behind,” he said.
“BOS is structurally similar to Octisalate, one of 12 chemical sunscreen ingredients that the FDA has identified as requiring more safety data,” added Andrews. “However, BOS is not regulated as an active ingredient and has not received the same level of safety rating.”
EWG first raised concerns about the SPF booster in an August 2016 letter to then Commissioner Robert Caliph in August 2016, urging them to investigate “sunscreen materials that allow manufacturers to promote the higher SPF value of commercial sunscreen products without truly enhancing protection from UVA and UVB rays.”
Agents should also investigate “protection from redness of the skin, immunosuppression, long-term skin damage, and during cancer.” To date, the FDA has not taken action, Andrews said.
The FDA proposed updated rules for sunscreen safety in 2019. The industry was asked to provide additional tests on 12 sunscreen chemicals with seven concerns presented by FDA testing. Andrews said that hasn’t happened yet.
The FDA proposal also asked manufacturers to test spray sunscreen products to prove that aerosolized chemicals cannot be inhaled into the deep lungs.
“When the FDA tested aerosol cosmetics a few years ago, they discovered that some products had very small particle sizes that could be inhaled into the deep lungs and lead to potential health hazards,” Andrews said. “The same concern applies to sunscreen.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, inhalation of such particles can “has serious health effects on the highest-risk individuals, including those with heart or lung disease, those with diabetes, the elderly, and children (up to 18 years old).
However, aerosol sunscreens continue to be popular among consumers – 26% of the sunscreens tested were sprays – despite the potential inhalation risks and the difficulty of providing even and proper coverage with sprays, Andrews said.
“Australian studies have found that even under conditions of light winds of 6-10 miles, for example, a significant portion of aerosol sunscreen is simply blown away,” he said. “I was at a football game last weekend. When someone sprayed sunscreen, it felt like it had crossed the entire field. They’re not sure they have sunscreen on themselves.”
The FDA also calls for a 60 SPF cap on sunscreen products in its 2019 proposal, saying that profits for those over 60 are very small. Therefore, labeling sunscreens at levels above SPF above 60 can lead to misleading consumers by providing a false sense of sunscreen, the FDA said. That hasn’t been achieved either, and consumers continue to spend their money on these products, Andrews said.
“One of the main factors in consumer purchases is the highest possible SPF count,” he said. “Consumers have not received a message that higher SPF values do not offer clear benefits.”
CNN reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, for comment, but did not respond before it was released.