Happy Thursday! As you know I founded TruKid to not only make safe and healthy products for kids but wanted to educated parents along the way as well. I thought it best to bring in someone who can help ferret out the truths about ingredients as it is all very confusing and there is a lot to know. I am are very fortunate to have Kathy Acquistapace on our team now. Read below our first installation of TruKids dedication to ingredient sleuthing and truth telling.
Hello! Dr. Kathy here for TruKid:
This is TruKid’s blog to help us all understand what is in our products. I salute all of you reading this: parents and families who care enough to buy the best, healthiest, most natural products that you can find for your children and yourselves. I am here because TruKid wants to keep you informed and up-to-date about our products and the ingredients that go into making them. My name is Kathy Acquistapace and I am a doctor of naturopathy and researcher of everything natural. I have been conducting research and consulting for major companies producing everything from supplements, nutraceuticals, to body and skin care products, for over 15 years. I have recently chosen to work with TruKid because I firmly believe in their products and their goals of producing the best possible, safest products for children and adults.
With summer coming and sun exposure increasing, plus keeping in mind the goal of using the best natural ingredients available, this week’s blog will look at the first two main ingredients in TruKid sunscreen, titanium dioxide and zinc. There is so much misinformation and hysteria out about these two elements that I would like to clear the air with some of the most up-to-date research available and throw in a little common sense too.
First of all, I would like to start with a FACT. TruKid uses only “micron sized” titanium and zinc. So what, you ask? Well, almost all of the concern about these elements in sunscreen products is based on the possibility that “nanoparticles” may be absorbed through the skin, especially in a watery environment. The current research shows that these nanoparticles have to be smaller than 100nm (nanometers) in size in order for skin absorption to happen. (if in fact absorption does happen. There is no agreement on this point). TruKid titanium and zinc micronized particles mean, by definition, that they are ground into particles that are micron sized. It would take 1000 nanoparticles to make one micron. Research shows, all in agreement, that any particle size in the micron range is too big to be absorbed into the skin and simply sits on top of the skin creating a very effective barrier to UV radiation from the sun. In other words, it does an excellent job in preventing sunburn and skin damage from the sun and additionally provides the best UVA and UVB protection. The reason that you likely selected TruKid in the first place!!
(And if you are wondering, I will list the date, title, and authors of all this research I keep talking about at the end of the blog,)
Now, for some common sense. Some of the most scary research that is listed on some of the “watchdog” agency websites regarding titanium dioxide and zinc oxide are outdated studies of what happen to rats, pigs, (and some people were actually studied) when they inhaled the powder of titanium and zinc. Anything that is in a powder form and is repeatedly inhaled, the lungs are going to suffer, and can cause permanent damage over time. But what is very important to remember is since TruKid sunscreen is a lotion, these studies do not apply in any way. Once the zinc and titanium are dispersed into a “base” and are no longer a powder, they become extremely safe!
And finally, this bit if information is perhaps a surprising for some. Check the back of nearly any inexpensive vitamin/mineral or almost any hard tablet that is white and check the “other ingredients” and you will find titanium dioxide. It is used to make things white. So no matter what size the particles are, they are being ingested and directly absorbed on a daily basis by many, many people in huge quantities compared to what is present in a non-absorbable form, in TruKid sunscreen. Same holds true for zinc. Many multivitamin/mineral supplements will contain zinc oxide in milligrams, again being ingested and absorbed by many, many people on a daily basis.
Both titanium and zinc minerals occur naturally in the soil, vegetables, fruits, grains, and many other foods that we eat. (Fun fact, the highest zinc content of any food is in oysters). When TruKid sunscreen is applied, the titanium dioxide and zinc ingredients are not absorbed through the skin, but stay on the surface of the body to act as a barrier against the suns UV rays.
I hope you found this informative in some way and can see that TruKid has done their homework regarding safety and effectiveness of their products. We never forget for a moment that babies and children are special people and deserve only the best in formulation and protection.
Lots of us are moms here, and all of us use all of the TruKid products. We firmly believe in what we do here and hope you do too.
Stay tuned for next week’s blog of ingredient sleuthing and truth telling.
Until Then,
Dr. Kathy
TruKid ingredient sleuther and truth teller
Research Citations for this Article: (If you would like to read the abstract of these studies, go to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/)
Photodermatol Photoimmunol Photomed. 2011 Apr;27(2):58-67. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0781.2011.00557.x. Current sunscreen controversies: a critical review.Burnett ME, Wang SQ.
Toxicol Sci. 2010 May;115(1):156-66. Epub 2010 Feb 15. Lack of significant dermal penetration of titanium dioxide from sunscreen formulations containing nano- and submicron-size TiO2 particles.Sadrieh N, Wokovich AM, Gopee NV, Zheng J, Haines D, Parmiter D, Siitonen PH, Cozart CR, Patri AK, McNeil SE, Howard PC, Doub WH, Buhse LF.
.Photochem Photobiol Sci.2010 Apr;9(4):495-509. Human safety review of "nano" titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.
Schilling K, Bradford B, Castelli D, Dufour E, Nash JF, Pape W, Schulte S, Tooley I, van den Bosch J, Schellauf F.
J Hazard Mater. 2010 Nov 15;183(1-3):954-5. Epub 2010 Jul 31. Multiple errors made by authors result in a huge overestimation of potential exposure to particles in the size range 10-30 nm in TiO(2) nanoparticle production facilities.Tomenson JA, Morfeld P.
J Biomed Opt. 2005 Nov-Dec;10(6):064037. Effect of size of TiO2 nanoparticles embedded into stratum corneum on ultraviolet-A and ultraviolet-B sun-blocking properties of the skin.Popov AP, Lademann J, Priezzhev AV, Myllylä R