Don’t take our word for it. Here’s every fact on this site, with its evidence grade, its caveats, and a link to the source, so you can check us.
We start you on the strong ones: findings that have been replicated or come from one large, well-controlled study. Moderate and weak facts are here too, labeled for what they are. Use “Link to this fact” to share a single card.
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
The cosmetics industry's 2021 safety review of benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone) explicitly covers only its use as a light stabilizer/product-protectant at up to 0.5% concentration — not its use as an active sunscreen ingredient at up to 6%, which is regulated separately by the FDA under 21 CFR 352 and was not included in this safety review's concentration-of-use survey.
Strong evidence: Quoted directly from the industry panel's own report; do not read this report's 'safe' conclusion as covering benzophenone-3's sunscreen-active use.
Source: CIR 2021 Benzophenones Industry-funded Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
US federal regulation (21 CFR 352.10) permits oxybenzone (benzophenone-3) as a sunscreen active ingredient at up to 6 percent.
Strong evidence.
Caveats
Directly quoted from the codified text ("(l) Oxybenzone up to 6 percent"); the whole Part carries its own indefinite-stay notice since 2003-2004, so treat this as the codified ceiling, not necessarily FDA's current live enforcement position.
Source: 21 CFR 352.10 (2023 ed.) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
21 CFR 352.10 lists 16 permitted OTC sunscreen active ingredients, each with its own maximum concentration: PABA 15%, avobenzone 3%, cinoxate 3%, dioxybenzone 3%, homosalate 15%, menthyl anthranilate 5%, octocrylene 10%, octyl methoxycinnamate 7.5%, octyl salicylate 5%, oxybenzone 6%, padimate O 8%, phenylbenzimidazole sulfonic acid 4%, sulisobenzone 10%, titanium dioxide 25%, trolamine salicylate 12%, and zinc oxide 25%.
Strong evidence: Two paragraph letters, (d) and (g), are reserved (no ingredient assigned).
Source: 21 CFR 352.10 (2023 ed.) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
The US allows up to 6% oxybenzone in sunscreens (21 CFR 352.10), while the EU now limits it to 2.2% in body products, with 6% still allowed in face, hand and lip products (Regulation (EU) 2022/1176).
Strong evidence.
Caveats
Different scopes: the US 6% applies to sunscreen generally and the monograph is stayed; the EU 2.2% applies to body products including sprays, with 6% still allowed in face, hand and lip products.
Source: 21 CFR Part 352 (2023 ed.) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
In its March 2021 opinion, the EU's independent cosmetics safety committee (SCCS) concluded that benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone) at 6% is not safe as a UV filter in body-cream, propellant-spray, or pump-spray sunscreens, but is safe at 6% in face cream, hand cream, and lipstick.
Strong evidence: Scientific advisory opinion, not law; one regulator's committee, but it recomputes the whole dossier. Rests on rat NOAEL and modeled absorption, not on observed harm in people.
Source: SCCS 2021 (BP-3 opinion), SCCS final opinion (PDF) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
The EU cut the legal limit for oxybenzone in body products to 2.2%, in line with this 2021 SCCS opinion (Regulation (EU) 2022/1176).
Strong evidence.
Caveats
Regulation 2022/1176 cites the SCCS safety assessment as its basis (recitals 3 and 5). It did not ban oxybenzone: 6% remains allowed in face, hand and lip products, and 0.5% in other products. The 2022 limit is read from the EUR-Lex print.
Source: SCCS 2021 (BP-3 opinion), SCCS final opinion (PDF) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
In a proposed order issued September 24, 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration proposed that sunscreens containing oxybenzone (benzophenone-3) are not generally recognized as safe and effective (GRASE), because the evidence in the record is inadequate.
Strong evidence.
Caveats
This is a PROPOSED order. The document cannot show whether it was finalized, revised or withdrawn; status is as of its date (2021-09-24). FDA states this is not a conclusion that the ingredient is unsafe.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
FDA's 2021 proposed order states that the 1999 sunscreen monograph text, including oxybenzone at up to 6 percent, is the Deemed Final Order under the CARES Act, so the stayed-Part status printed in the CFR is not the whole legal picture.
Strong evidence: This describes FDA's legal reading in a 2021 proposal, not a court ruling. Later changes are not known from this document.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
EU law caps benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone) as a UV filter at 2.2% in body products, including propellant and pump sprays, against 6% in face, hand and lip products (excluding sprays) and 0.5% in other products.
Strong evidence.
Caveats
Legal text, Annex VI entry 4 (Official Journal print checked 2026-10-23). The 2.2% body-product cap applies unless 0.5% benzophenone-3 is also used to protect the formulation; then the UV-filter level is capped at 1.7% (body) or 5.5% (face, hand, lip). Warning 'Contains Benzophenone-3' is required for categories a) and b), except at 0.5% or less used only for product protection.
Source: Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1176, Annex VI entry 4 (OJ L 183, 8.7.2022) Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Review of other studies
Octocrylene, which sunscreen manufacturers adopted as an alternative after bans on oxybenzone in reef-protective jurisdictions (Hawaii, Key West Florida, Bonaire, Aruba, Palau, US Virgin Islands), is itself contaminated with benzophenone during manufacture and cannot be fully purified of it; it also undergoes a slow retro-aldol condensation reaction in the finished product that continuously regenerates more benzophenone as the sunscreen ages.
Moderate evidence: The underlying primary (Downs et al. 2021a) is not yet a evidence base source; treat the aging/regeneration mechanism as reported by this review pending that primary.
Source: Hodge 2025, Marine Pollution Bulletin Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Government agency
As of 2019, FDA's own proposed sunscreen rule found insufficient data to confirm avobenzone, oxybenzone, and octocrylene as 'generally recognized as safe and effective' sunscreen actives — of 16 monograph ingredients, only the mineral filters zinc oxide and titanium dioxide had cleared that bar — while the codified US sunscreen regulation (21 CFR Part 352) still lists all of them as permitted, and that Part has carried a 'stayed indefinitely' notice since 2003-2004.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Reflects the regulatory status as of the 2019 trial and the 2023 CFR codification captured in this evidence base; a finalized monograph rule issued after either date would supersede this.
Source: Matta 2019, JAMA Link to this fact
Laws and loopholes / Other evidence
EU limits on benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone) as a UV filter: 6% in face, hand and lip products (not sprays), 2.2% in body products including propellant and pump sprays, 0.5% in other products; octocrylene 9% in propellant sprays and 10% in other products.
Moderate evidence: Secondary summary by a regulatory consultancy (Obelis); cite the Regulation itself for these numbers.
Source: COSlaw.eu (Obelis) 2022, UV filters news Industry-funded Link to this fact
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.