“Natural” Sunscreens Although More Expensive Are Not More Effective at Preventing UV Exposure

Skin cancer, the most common type of cancer within humans, has approximately 3.5 million cases each year. The evidence supports that the use of sunscreen can help to prevent different forms of skin cancers. There are a multitude of brands that make sunscreen, each claiming to be better than the next. The two main types of sunscreen are physical and chemical. Physical sunscreens deflect the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun and are normally made of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, whereas chemical sunscreen absorb the suns UV rays and can be composed of many different ingredients. It was hypothesized that the physical sunscreens would do a better job at protecting against the sun’s rays than the chemical sunscreen brands. In this experiment E. coli growth was tested under UV light exposure with an application of five different brands of sunscreen. The control was exposed to UV with no sunscreen protection. After exposure to the UV light, the bacteria were set aside to grow and colonies were counted for survival. A statistical ANOVA was used to look at the significance between each brand of sunscreen, physical and chemical. Through the statistical analysis it was found that there was no significant difference between each brand of sunscreen. However, there was a significant difference in E. coli counts between each sunscreen application and the control. There was no statistical difference in E. coli counts between sunscreen types, indicating both types of sunscreen provide the same amount of protection from UV radiation

Personal Care Products: Where are the Phthalates?

Phthalates are chemicals that are commonly used as a plasticizer in personal care products. This class of compounds is added to help prevent products from drying out. Phthalates have been shown to have potential negative impacts on reproductive organs, cause birth defects, effect the endocrine system, as well as causing other ill effects. For example, previous work found that phthalates can have an effect on the endocrine system of adolescent individuals. In an intervention study, phthalate exposure was reduced when these products were not being used. The purpose of the present study is to examine phthalate abundance in personal care products and to design an intervention study to lessen exposure. To identify products containing phthalates, we used the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic database. This database contains personal care products and their ingredients. We used the database to identify products that contain phthalates and the type of phthalates used. The most commonly used phthalate is polyethylene terephthalate, with it currently found in 610 products, with 314 of which are nail polish. There are also 12 other kinds of phthalates that are regularly used in personal care products, ranging from lipstick to sunscreen. We can see that there are still a multitude of products that contain potentially harmful phthalates. This study is the foundation to future work looking at exposure to phthalates in adult populations and assessing sources of exposure from personal care products

Personal Care Products: Where are the Phthalates?

Phthalates are chemicals that are commonly used as a plasticizer in personal care products. This class of compounds is added to help prevent products from drying out. Phthalates have been shown to have potential negative impacts on reproductive organs, cause birth defects, effect the endocrine system, as well as causing other ill effects. For example, previous work found that phthalates can have an effect on the endocrine system of adolescent individuals. In an intervention study, phthalate exposure was reduced when these products were not being used. The purpose of the present study is to examine phthalate abundance in personal care products and to design an intervention study to lessen exposure. To identify products containing phthalates, we used the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic database. This database contains personal care products and their ingredients. We used the database to identify products that contain phthalates and the type of phthalates used. The most commonly used phthalate is polyethylene terephthalate, with it currently found in 610 products, with 314 of which are nail polish. There are also 12 other kinds of phthalates that are regularly used in personal care products, ranging from lipstick to sunscreen. We can see that there are still a multitude of products that contain potentially harmful phthalates. This study is the foundation to future work looking at exposure to phthalates in adult populations and assessing sources of exposure from personal care products

Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia

This book, Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia, makes a unique and needed contribution to the mentoring field as it focuses solely on mentoring in academia. This handbook is a collaborative institutional effort between Utah State University’s (USU) Empowering Teaching Open Access Book Series and the Mentoring Institute at the University of New Mexico (UNM). This book is available through (a) an e-book through Pressbooks, (b) a downloadable PDF version on USU’s Open Access Book Series website), and (c) a print version available for purchase on the USU Empower Teaching Open Access page, and on Amazon

Is Your Sunscreen Worth It?

Skin cancer, the most common type of cancer within humans, has approximately 3.5 million cases each year. It is widely known that the use of sunscreen can help to prevent different forms of skin cancers. There are a multitude of brands that make sunscreen, each claiming to be better than the next. The two main types of sunscreen are physical and chemical. Physical sunscreens deflect the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun and are normally made of zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, whereas chemical sunscreen absorb the suns UV rays and can be composed of many different ingredients. It was hypothesized that the physical sunscreens would do a better job at protecting against the sun’s rays than the chemical sunscreen brands. In this experiment E. coli growth was tested under UV light exposure with an application of five different brands of sunscreen. The control was exposed to UV with no sunscreen protection. After exposure to the UV light, the bacteria was set aside to grow and colonies were counted Oral Presentation Abstracts 25 for survival. Statistical t-tests were used to look at the significance between each brand of sunscreen, physical and chemical. Through the statistical analysis it was found that there was no significant difference between each brand of sunscreen. However, there was a significant difference in E. coli counts between the each sunscreen application and the control. There was no statistical difference in E. coli counts between sunscreen types, indicating both types of sunscreen provide the same amount of protection from UV radiation

Personal Care Products: Where are the Phthalates?

Phthalates are plasticizing chemicals that are commonly used in personal care products to help prevent products from drying out. Phthalates have been shown to have potential negative impacts on reproductive organs, causing birth defects, affecting the endocrine system, as well as causing other ill effects. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) uses a pump to pass solvents through a column providing the separation, and with an ultraviolet (UV) detector, a measurement of substances found within that specific sample. Phthalates in urine can be separated, identified, and quantified using HPLC. To test the procedure and to calibrate the instrument, caffeine was used as an example compound. Four concentrations of caffeine were analyzed in triplicate and subjected to regression analysis. Retention time and peak area were obtained to see when caffeine elutes during the HPLC run. Caffeine is detected by the HPLC around 9 minutes in retention time. The peak area correlated with the concentrations, with the largest peak area being 1 g/mL caffeine. The R-squared value was 0.9887, showing the linearity of the relationship between peak area and concentration. This research will help contribute to the method validation of the HPLC when urine samples containing phthalate metabolites, are run. This research project is looking to test for the quantity of phthalate metabolites in the urine of college age females after exposure to personal care products, specifically nail polish. Upon completion of this research we hope to further understand the exposure to phthalates from personal care products have on college-age females