Not all sunscreens are created equal

Dear Reader:

Shocking. After analyzing 500 sunscreens, including major brands like Hawaiian Tropic, Banana Boat and Neutrogena, we were only able to recommend 39 of them in this year's sunscreen report -- a mere eight percent. That means a whopping 461 of them either don't provide adequate protection or contain potentially hazardous ingredients, or both.

Each year, EWG conducts this kind of research so you have the latest information to help protect your family before you head out for fun summer activities.

Empowering you with information is the most important work we do, but this research isn't easy and isn't cheap. We've got to raise $65,000 before our June 11 fundraising deadline in order to stay on track for our 2010 budget.

By donating today, you can ensure that we are able to continue giving you the information you need to make safe choices for your family. And if you give $10 or more, you'll receive a bag tag with sunscreen information that you can clip onto your shopping bag or beach bag.

Click here to make an immediate, secure donation of $10 or more to EWG and get a free bag tag! We need your generous support to empower consumers with information like our annual sunscreen report, which helps you make crucial decisions about keeping your family safe and healthy.

More than a million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed every year in the United States alone. Families may think they're doing the right thing by lathering themselves with brand sunscreen, but in many cases the sunscreens they use don't work as well as they should to protect against the sun's damaging UV rays.

If EWG didn't provide you with this valuable information each year, you'd simply have to roll the dice and hope you chose the right product. But with these odds, you'd probably be making the wrong choice.

EWG has been doing this kind of research for more than 15 years, and we want to keep doing everything we can to arm consumers with the latest data on product safety and effectiveness. But we can only do it with your generous support. Please make a donation today so we can meet our fundraising goal of $65,000 before the June 11 deadline.

Click here to make an immediate, secure donation to EWG. We need your support to keep empowering consumers with the latest product safety data. And if you donate $10 or more, you'll get a bag tag containing information about sunscreens to clip onto your shopping bag or beach bag.

EWG is proud to be a leader on issues that are critical to your family's safety. And we are fortunate to have the generous support of people like you, who believe in our mission and value our contributions. I know I can count on you to take action and make a donation today.

Sincerely,

Ken Cook
President, Environmental Working Group