In 1930s and 1940s, different people started to formulate, the first sunscreen products. In the 30s an Australian chemist, H.A. Milton Blake, started experimented in his kitchen. He created the first sunburn prevention cream and named it, Hamilton Sun and Skin, which is still sold today.
Franz Grieter, a Swiss chemistry student, was inspired to develop a sunscreen in 1938 after getting a bad sunburn while climbing a mountain on the Swiss-Austrian border. He also established, the Sun Protection Factor or SPF. This is what we all now, know and use to measure how long a sunscreen will protect us from the sun’s UVB rays. Greiter’s original formula only had an SPF of 2! Can you imagine using that today?
By 1944, American pharmacist Benjamin Green invented a sunscreen solution for the U.S. military to protect himself and other soldiers during World War II. He used a heavy, sticky substance called “red vet pet” (red veterinary petrolatum) that acted as a physical barrier between the sun and skin, and after the war, he blended it with coconut oil and cocoa butter to produce a sunscreen that we now know as, Coppertone.
Tanning, start to become a huge trend, in the 1960s and sunscreen products were geared toward achieving, that “healthy glow”.
Up until the 1970s, people would spend hours in the sun without a care in the world. Back then, chemical sunscreens were available (SPF 15) but not used. People were not concerned with their skin or the amount of damage they were doing to their skin. The fear of Skin Cancer, did not exist, yet.
The sun tanning and linking sunscreen to tanning, started to change. People became more aware, that long-term damage to sun exposure. Sunburns and using tanning beds, are all factors in developing skin damage and most importantly, skin cancer. In the 1970s, Piz Buin introduced sunscreen with both UVB and UVA filters, but the SPF only ranged from 2 to 15. Scientists continued to study the sun’s rays throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, they first concluded that UVB rays are linked to skin cancer and then discovered UVA rays contribute, too.
This brought on a new wave of sunscreens in the 1990s and from there, you know the rest!!
Sunscreen: www.lovesunbody.com
Info: parade.com