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Until this week, the United States hadn't approved a new sunscreen ingredient in almost 30 years.

That changed when the FDA approved a new chemical UV filter for U.S. sunscreens on Tuesday.

NPR health correspondent Maria Godoy is here to tell us all about it.

Hey, Maria. Hi, Gina. So what is this ingredient that just got approved? Yeah, it's called

Bemitrizzanol, and it's a chemical UV filter that's been used in sunscreens in Europe and Asia

for a long time. Often, it's also sold under the name Tennisorb S.

Here you will see it as Parcel Shield.

That's the trademark name for it from the company that got it approved for sale in the U.S.

I talked about this with Dr. Heather Rogers.

She's a dermatologist in Seattle and a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology.

And she says she is psyched about this new ingredient.

It hits like really every box for us that we have been waiting for as dermatologists and consumers.

I love sunscreen, so I'm really excited about this. We actually did an episode last year on why U.S. sunscreens have lagged behind European and Asian ones. And part of the reason was that

there's different regulations for how sunscreen is approved in the U.S.

Yeah, that's right. I absolutely love sunscreens, too. Use it every day of the year. And you're

right, it's a long process, partially because in the U.S. there's a higher bar for proving that

they're safe and effective.

In Europe, they treat sunscreens as cosmetics, and it's also expensive.

So companies in the past have looked to get new sunscreen ingredients approved here,

but they gave up because it just cost way too much money.

And in fact, it took 20 years to get this new ingredient approved here and millions and millions of dollars.

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