SOME INFLUENCERS ONLINE are telling their audience that not only is sunscreen not needed, but that its chemicals could be dangerous. 

The HSE has said there’s no truth to the claims and no science to back them up.

“The idea that the sun doesn’t cause skin cancer is just ludicrous,” the HSE’s clinical lead for dermatology Professor Anne Marie Tobin told Newstalk Breakfast.

“It’s the most preventable type of cancer you can we have. And the one thing that’s involved is UV radiation.”

She said that, health benefits aside, protecting skin from the sun is the single most effective anti-aging technique.

However, it’s young people who are most likely to see the misinformation and believe it, even if it conflicts with other ideas that have been marketed to them.

“Bear in mind that these were a similar audience that were targeted with anti-aging creams, and having a fridge to keep their cosmetics in,” Tobin said.

“Not using a sun block when you’re younger is incredibly dangerous, because the amount of sunburn you get adds up all over your lifetime, and severe sunburns, for example, a blistering sunburn in childhood or adolescence doubles your risk of melanoma in later life.

“So it’s a particularly worrying trend to be putting out there among a younger audience.”

Says it may be harder for teenagers to conceptualise that they will age.

Meanwhile, people are getting skin cancers at much younger ages now.

“We’re seeing people in their 30s, which would have been very unusual, getting skin cancers,” Tobin said.

“A lot of skin cancer is very treatable, but it does leave you with scars, and usually it’s in very obvious places on your face.”