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.
Fragrance is everywhere / Government agency
Benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone) is used in fragrance formulations at concentrations up to 0.5%, and separately in lipstick (up to 0.5%, incidental ingestion) and bath soaps/detergents (up to 0.5%, mucous-membrane contact), per the cosmetics industry's own 2021 concentration-of-use data.
Strong evidence.
Caveats
Figures are from the industry's own use-concentration survey; the fragrance-formulation use is not separately broken out by product category in the public report beyond this single statement.
Source: CIR 2021 Benzophenones Industry-funded Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
The EU committee's margin of safety for 6% oxybenzone was about 36-38 for whole-body sunscreens (aerosol 36, cream and pump spray 38), far below the 447 for face cream, 317 for hand cream, and 1257 for lipstick; the SCCS uses a 100-fold margin as the benchmark in its guidance.
Strong evidence.
Caveats
Margin = 67.9 mg/kg/day rat NOAEL divided by estimated absorbed dose; the 100 benchmark is stated in the separate guidance, not this opinion. Absorption includes a 2-standard-deviation add-on for a flawed lab study.
Source: SCCS 2021 (BP-3 opinion), SCCS final opinion (PDF) Link to this fact
The industry / Other evidence
FDA's 2021 proposed order states that its scientific discussion of oxybenzone is generally the same as the 2019 proposed rule, which put oxybenzone in the category of insufficient data for GRASE.
Strong evidence: This is FDA's own statement of continuity; the industry's 2021 CIR report reached a different "safe as used" conclusion for a narrower use.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
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 / 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
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
Health effects / Lab study (cells or chemistry)
Two sunscreen ingredients, oxybenzone (benzophenone-3) and homosalate, blocked the male hormone receptor in human cells, at roughly the potency of the pesticide metabolite p,p'-DDE.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
MDA-kb2 reporter cells, IC50 4.98 and 5.57 uM against 0.1 nM DHT; cell assay only, no animal or human anti-androgen endpoint in this paper; data from the group's own Ma 2003. The cosmetics industry's own 2021 CIR benzophenone safety report cites the same research group's 2001 precursor study (matching MCF-7 EC50 of 3.73 uM for benzophenone-3) but its Discussion and Conclusion never weigh this antiandrogenic/estrogenic data when concluding benzophenone-3 is 'safe as used' — industry review of the data is not the same as industry rebuttal of it.
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In an FDA-run randomized trial of 24 healthy adults applying commercial sunscreens under maximal labeled use (2 mg/cm2 over 75% of the body, 4 times a day, for 4 days), oxybenzone reached a geometric mean peak blood concentration of 169-210 ng/mL, roughly 340 to 420 times the FDA's own 0.5 ng/mL threshold for requiring additional cancer and reproductive-toxicology studies, and was still above 20 ng/mL a full three days after the last application.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single small feasibility trial (n=6/product), not designed to compare formulations, skin types or ages; maximal-use protocol, not typical daily use; conducted indoors with no real sun, heat or humidity exposure.
Source: Matta 2019, JAMA Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
All four tested sunscreen active ingredients — avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, and ecamsule — exceeded the FDA's 0.5 ng/mL systemic-absorption threshold on day 1 of a maximal-use trial, with blood levels rising further after repeated daily application (day 4 vs day 1), consistent with drug accumulation, and terminal half-lives ranging from about 1 day (oxybenzone) to over 3 days (octocrylene).
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Exceeding the threshold is a regulatory trigger for more toxicology testing, not a finding that the ingredients are unsafe; the paper explicitly states the clinical significance of these levels is unknown.
Source: Matta 2019, JAMA Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
In a second FDA trial of 48 healthy adults, all 6 tested sunscreen active ingredients — avobenzone, oxybenzone, octocrylene, homosalate, octisalate, and octinoxate — exceeded the FDA's 0.5 ng/mL systemic-absorption threshold after just a single application on day 1, not only after days of repeated maximal use.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Single trial from one research team/site; exceeding the threshold is a regulatory trigger for more toxicology testing, not a finding that the ingredients are unsafe — the paper explicitly states these findings do not indicate people should stop using sunscreen.
Source: Matta 2020, JAMA Link to this fact
Health effects / Measured in people or real products
Oxybenzone reached a geometric mean peak blood concentration of up to 258.1 ng/mL (lotion) in this FDA trial, roughly 500 times the agency's own 0.5 ng/mL toxicology-waiver threshold, and stayed above that threshold in more than three-quarters of participants through day 21, the last day the trial measured.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Maximal-use protocol (2 mg/cm2 over 75% of body surface area, repeated dosing days 2-4); the study stopped measuring at day 21, so it is unknown when oxybenzone levels actually fell below threshold.
Source: Matta 2020, JAMA Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
In one FDA-cited study, 15 men and 17 women applying a 10 percent oxybenzone cream to about 90 percent of the body once daily for 4 days had oxybenzone detected in plasma and urine, and FDA calls this evidence of significant systemic availability.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Small, single study of a non-sunscreen cream applied once daily; FDA itself says it does not capture labeled reapplication and does not establish real-use absorption. Figures are approximate, read from the chart.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
FDA says oxybenzone was detected in human breast milk, amniotic fluid, urine and blood plasma, and that high maternal urinary levels were associated with birth-weight changes in one biomonitoring study, which FDA calls "inconclusive" evidence of endocrine effects in humans.
Moderate evidence: FDA describes the human endocrine evidence as inconclusive; the birth-weight association is from one biomonitoring study and is correlational.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
FDA says the animal evidence on oxybenzone includes reduced sperm density in male rats and mice and longer estrous cycles in female rodents in 13-week NTP studies, and that the actual effects on female fertility were not evaluated.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
FDA notes these studies used acetone dermal dosing or oral feeding, which may give systemic exposure higher than sunscreen use; FDA says they need toxicokinetic data before their relevance to humans can be judged.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
FDA says the record lacks the human maximal-usage absorption study, toxicokinetic data, dermal and systemic carcinogenicity studies and developmental and reproductive toxicity studies that it expects before oxybenzone could be GRASE at up to 6 percent.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
These are FDA's own expectations under a 2021 proposal. FDA reviews NTP oral carcinogenicity studies that may fill part of the systemic gap; the list reflects the record as of 2021.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Health effects / Other evidence
FDA says oxybenzone may generate reactive oxygen species under UV light, and that the harms of this have not been fully explored.
Moderate evidence: A literature pointer that FDA says is unexplored, not a finding of harm.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
The industry / Government agency
The cosmetics industry's own safety panel (CIR, funded by the Personal Care Products Council) concluded in 2021 that Benzophenone-1, -2, -3, -4, -5, -6, -8, -9, -10, -11 and -12 are 'safe' in cosmetics at their present concentrations of use, including Benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone) used as a light stabilizer or fragrance-formulation ingredient at up to 0.5%.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
This is the industry panel's own conclusion, not an independent or governmental safety finding; CIR is funded by the Personal Care Products Council. The Panel's Discussion and Conclusion sections address only carcinogenicity and incidental inhalation; they never revisit the extensive endocrine-activity data the same report catalogs in its own body.
Source: CIR 2021 Benzophenones Industry-funded Link to this fact
The industry / Other evidence
The main safety data set the oxybenzone sunscreen maker offered against clinic reports of oxybenzone allergy is 64 of its own unpublished studies, written up by its employees and former employees; the authors argue clinic-based literature overstates risk because clinic patients already have skin disease.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The authors' point about clinic selection is fair, but their healthy-volunteer design cannot measure risk in the photosensitive people where oxybenzone photoallergy is reported. 'Meta-analysis' here means pooling the sponsor's studies, with no search or inclusion criteria.
Source: Agin 2008 (oxybenzone HRIPT), Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine Industry-funded 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
Skin allergy / Other evidence
FDA says oxybenzone is a contact allergen for people with pre-existing skin conditions and a photoallergen for people with photosensitivity, and it would consider requiring allergy labeling if the missing data supported GRASE.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
The patch-test rate is low overall and reflects a general allergy-clinic population; FDA calls the photoallergen evidence "clear" for photosensitive people only. Labeling is a possibility under the proposal, not a requirement.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Skin allergy / Other evidence
A pooled analysis of 64 unpublished studies commissioned by a sunscreen maker found that about 1 in 400 healthy adults (48 of 19,570) had any possible irritation or allergic reaction to oxybenzone sunscreens under exaggerated patch-test conditions, and oxybenzone itself was confirmed as the cause in only 8 people.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Funded and written by the manufacturer's current and former employees (Schering-Plow HealthCare); data unpublished and unreviewed at study level; healthy volunteers only; some flagged subjects were never resolved. Industry position, not an independent incidence estimate.
Source: Agin 2008 (oxybenzone HRIPT), Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine Industry-funded Link to this fact
What you can do / Measured in people or real products
When 100 teenage girls swapped their usual personal care products for ones labeled free of phthalates, parabens, triclosan, and oxybenzone for just 3 days, levels of these chemicals in their urine fell by 27-45%.
Moderate evidence: No control arm, 100 Latina girls in one town, 3 days, summer.
Source: Harley 2016, Environmental Health Perspectives Link to this fact
What you can do / Government agency
Under EU law, a body or spray sunscreen can contain at most 2.2% oxybenzone as a UV filter, so a higher-oxybenzone body spray is not compliant in the EU.
Moderate evidence.
Caveats
Applies to products placed on the EU market after the 2023 transition. The 2.2% cap holds unless 0.5% benzophenone-3 is also added as a formulation protectant, in which case the UV-filter level is capped at 1.7% (checked against the Official Journal print 2026-10-23).
Source: Commission Regulation (EU) 2022/1176, Annex VI entry 4 Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Other evidence
FDA asks whether oxybenzone sunscreens should be contraindicated for children under 2 years old, because children under 2 may not fully have the enzymes that metabolize oxybenzone and have a higher body-surface-to-weight ratio.
Weak evidence: The enzyme point is a theoretical argument from a 2006 report; FDA says it is seeking existing pediatric data and public comment, and has not made a finding.
Source: FDA proposed order OTC000008 (2021) Link to this fact
Children and pregnancy / Measured in people or real products
The only paraben signal was methyl-paraben (log MC 0.042, 95% CI 0.013 to 0.071) with attention variability; ethyl-, propyl- and butyl-paraben, BPA, triclosan and oxybenzone showed no clear association with attention in the same children.
Weak evidence: Single cohort, uncorrected for multiple testing; parabens are personal-care preservatives, not fragrance ingredients.
Source: Fabbri 2025 (HELIX), Environmental Research Link to this fact
Skin allergy / Other evidence
In the manufacturer's own pooled patch tests, the rate of skin reactions to sunscreens with 1-6% oxybenzone did not rise with the oxybenzone concentration, and photoallergy tests and standard repeat patch tests gave the same low rate (about 0.27% vs 0.26%).
Weak evidence: Sponsor-held data from healthy adults; per-formula averages, not pooled individual data; the null concentration trend spans only 1-6% with most formulas at 6%.
Source: Agin 2008 (oxybenzone HRIPT), Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine Industry-funded Link to this fact
Skin allergy / Other evidence
Few sunscreen shoppers raised ingredient worries: among 325 top-voted reviews, nanoparticles were named in 7 comments (2%) and oxybenzone, avobenzone, parabens, homosalate and retinyl palmitate in about 3 each (1%).
Weak evidence: Top-voted comments only; absence of mention is not absence of concern, and many shoppers may not know which filters are in the product.
Information, not medical advice. See also: myths we won’t tell you.