Science
and Drug Administration (FDA) has created restrictions on the products accordingly. The Sun Protection Factor (SPF) was created to measure a sunscreen’s ability to block out UVB rays that caused burns. The higher the SPF, the more protection it offered from sunburns. However, a sunscreen’s SPF does not indicate its ability to block UVA radiation; and as of right now, there is no universally accepted method to measure UVA protection. 18
Nerve Magazine
Unfortunately, once UVA was widely known to be dangerous, sunscreens popped up on shelves claiming to be “broadspectrum” and the FDA allowed this, ruling that the term could be applied if even the slightest UVA protection was offered. This led to an abuse of the term and ultimately many North American sunscreens were falsely branding themselves as protecting against skin cancer and premature aging, without actually having the ingredients