05/30/06 sunscreen and environment

Did you make through Memorial weekend without a sunburn? Thanks to the medical community and the media, we all know too much sun is a no-no. Look at the progress we've made in the last twenty years. Today tanning lotion has been replaced by sunscreen, lots of it and boy you need to be a math wizard to navigate the numbering system. A 45 for my face, 15 on legs, 30 on arms. Now what if I blend the 15 and the 30, do I need the 45? There is no dispute that sunscreen saves lives, and skin, so in typical fashion some environmental groups want it outlawed because it is apparently bad for the Earth. Groups like Green Peace and Friends of the Earth are calling for sunscreen with zinc banned over fears that nano zinc particles could damage the ozone layer. No matter how ridiculous this sounds it is even more outrageous to think that in light of all the worthy causes to study some poor researcher spends his days calculating nano emissions from sunscreen.