Beachgoers, Remember Your Drinkable Sunscreen
Drinkable sunscreen by Osmosis Skincare has been on the market for a couple years already, but a new round of media attention is shedding new light on the controversial product.
The brand's UV Neutralizer Harmonized H2O -- previously marketed as UV Protection -- claims to have the same level of protection against ultraviolet light as topical sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 30.
Osmosis Skincare says it's discovered a way to isolate the "precise frequencies" of vibrational waves in water necessary for protection from UV rays.
Osmosis Skincare founder Dr. Ben Johnson explained in a company fact sheet that the product is developed by manipulating the radio waves that occur naturally in water in order to tap into their UV-canceling properties. The process is then duplicated hundreds of thousands of times.
The prepared water is then packaged for sale, at $30 for a 100 ml bottle.
Johnson asserts that when people drink the water the solar-ray-canceling properties are passed on to the water molecules already in the body -- and the solar energy-cancelling waves emitting from one's body neutralize the UV rays before they actually hit.
Experts from the field of dermatology say they have no idea how the process could work.
The British Association of Dermatologists issued a recent statement that said the UV Neutralizer Harmonized H2O formula is 100 percent water -- and, as such, it is "complete nonsense" to say drinking it could provide any type of protection from the sun.
Theresa R. Pacheco, from the department of dermatology at the University of Colorado 's Anschutz Medical Campus, announced she also has no understanding of how such liquid could offer protection from solar radiation, since there is no scientific framework for understanding it.
Still others dismiss the drinkable sunscreen as nothing more than trendy pseudoscience.
The Food and Drug Administration indicated it has not evaluated Osmosis Skincare's claims its SPF testing only applies to topical products, and Harmonized H2O is taken orally.
Pacheco explains since Harmonized H2O is sold as a cosmetic product rather than traditional sunscreen, Osmosis is not obligated to follow FDA requirements for testing in order to claim an SPF rating -- as long as the SPF rating is positioned as a marketing claim only.
The product isn't patented either -- the United States Patent and Trademark Office rejected it, said Osmosis, which notes it tested the product Skincare by having people consume the drinkable sunscreen, then apply topical sunblock to all exposed areas of the body except one limb.
The study subjects then sat in the sun and, later, the limb without traditional sunscreen was compared to the rest of the body.
Based on those comparative results, Osmosis claims Harmonized H2O is testing at SPF 30 or higher.
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