Writing in
Cosmetic Dermatology, researchers from the UK’s Hull York Medical School and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust conducted a literature review on the history of sunscreen to provide an updated view of a global market set to soar to €20.3bn ($24.4bn) by 2029.
Beyond UVA and UVB photoprotection into visible light
The researchers said that since 4000BC, humankind had found ways to provide photoprotection, including rice, jasmine and lupine extracts used by the Egyptians and oil and sand blends used in ancient Greece.
But it was only in the last century that evidence-based sunscreens had existed, they said, with the first ultraviolet B (UVB) filters produced in 1928 and evidence of efficacy and safety discovered in 1956. It was later, in 1974, that the development of sun protection factor (SPF) came about and regulatory bodies for sunscreens were introduced. Only in 1980 was the first ultraviolet A (UVA) filters released, with the ultraviolet