Does sunscreen cause cancer? What the research actually says
Short answer: No major health body has found evidence that sunscreen causes cancer. A randomized Australian trial found the opposite: daily sunscreen use lowered the risk of one skin cancer type by 40%. Yet a 2024 national survey found 1 in 7 adults under 35 believe daily sunscreen is more harmful than direct sun exposure.
Somewhere along the way, sunscreen picked up a reputation problem. It is worth walking through what the actual research says, because the evidence points in the opposite direction from the online claims.
How common the myth has become
A March 2024 survey by the Orlando Health Cancer Institute, conducted with Ipsos, found that 1 in 7 (14%) of adults under 35 in the United States believe daily sunscreen use is more harmful to skin than direct sun exposure.
Where the myth actually comes from
The idea did not appear out of nowhere. In 2010, the Environmental Working Group's sunscreen guide raised concerns about retinyl palmitate, a form of vitamin A added to some sunscreens, citing a National Toxicology Program study (published 2011) that found retinyl palmitate sped up tumor development on UV-exposed mice. The story drew wide media coverage. A subsequent analysis by dermatologists, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, found no convincing evidence of the same effect in humans.
In 2021, an independent lab found benzene, a known human carcinogen, in dozens of aerosol sunscreen products. Benzene is not a sunscreen ingredient, it turned up as a contaminant in specific batches, and five products across 2 brands from one manufacturer were voluntarily recalled as a result. Both stories were real, but narrow: one about a single ingredient in mouse studies, the other about contamination in particular aerosol batches, not sunscreen as a category.
What the strongest evidence actually shows
The most convincing evidence on sunscreen and skin cancer comes from the Nambour Skin Cancer Prevention Trial, a randomized controlled trial that followed 1,621 adults in Queensland, Australia starting in 1992. Participants were randomly assigned to either daily sunscreen use or their usual, discretionary use. Daily users had a 40% lower incidence of squamous cell carcinoma, a result that held up even years after the active trial ended (van der Pols et al., Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 2006; long-term follow-up in Green et al., Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2011).
The randomization matters here. Because participants were assigned to a group rather than choosing for themselves, the trial rules out a common source of confusion in this topic: people who already know they burn easily tend to use more sunscreen and also carry a higher baseline skin cancer risk, which can make sunscreen look falsely linked to cancer in studies that just observe people's habits rather than randomly assigning them.
Why some studies find no link at all
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis in Anticancer Research looked at observational, case-control studies and found no clear association between sunscreen use and melanoma risk, one way or the other. That is not a contradiction of the trial above, it is a reflection of how much noisier observational data is on this specific question, for the confounding reason described above. A separate 2025 narrative review (Micha, Bohart, and Goldstein, Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice) concluded that sunscreen does reduce melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma incidence, with a smaller effect on basal cell carcinoma, and that the protection depends on consistent, correct use.
Meanwhile, the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has stated plainly that sunscreen does not cause skin cancer, a position that reflects the weight of the evidence above, not a single study.
What to actually do with this
Look for broad-spectrum protection at SPF 30 or higher, and reapply every two hours when you are in the sun, or right after swimming or sweating.
The takeaway
The direction of the actual evidence is the opposite of the online myth: daily sunscreen use is linked to lower cancer risk in the strongest available study design, not higher.
Sources: van der Pols JC et al., Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 2006, PMID 17132769. Green AC et al., Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2011, PMID 21135266. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, "Sunscreen Does Not Cause Skin Cancer." Orlando Health Cancer Institute / Ipsos survey, March 2024. Micha JP, Bohart RD, Goldstein BH, Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, 2025, PMID 40123348. Anticancer Research, 2025, DOI 10.21873/anticanres.17724. Environmental Working Group, 2010 Sunscreen Guide; National Toxicology Program, retinyl palmitate study, 2011. Valisure benzene testing, 2021; manufacturer voluntary recall notice, July 2021.