Homosalate, Oxybenzone and Your Kids' Sunscreen: What the TGA Review and the Headlines are Really Saying

October 01, 2025

Homosalate, Oxybenzone and Your Kids' Sunscreen: What the TGA Review and the Headlines Are Really Saying?

Two common sunscreen ingredients' safety levels under review by TGA's. Here's what you should know.

For years, Australians have been told to wear sunscreen every day, and rightly so.

But there's another question we believe deserves just as much attention:

What's actually in the sunscreen we're applying to our skin, day after day and year after year?

Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) recently completed a safety review of seven active sunscreen ingredients commonly used in Australia.

Five were considered low risk at their currently permitted levels.

Two were not: homosalate and oxybenzone.

The TGA is now proposing tighter restrictions on how much of these ingredients can be used in Australian sunscreens.

A quick note on the numbers. The ingredients in question are used at meaningful concentrations  up to 15% for homosalate and 10% for oxybenzone in general body sunscreens. Homosalate alone is used in the majority of Australian sunscreens, amounting to more than 169 tonnes sold every year. This isn't a niche ingredient tucked into a handful of products — it's in many of the bottles sitting in Australian bathrooms right now.

What did the TGA actually find?

The TGA wasn't simply looking at whether these ingredients protect against UV.

It looked at something particularly important for Australians: long-term, frequent sunscreen use over large areas of the body.

The review considered whether sunscreen ingredients can penetrate the skin and enter the body, their potential toxicity, and the amount of sunscreen Australians may be exposed to through regular use.

To assess this, the TGA calculated what is known as a Margin of Safety.

A Margin of Safety of 100 or greater is considered satisfactory by the TGA for protecting human health and safety from long-term use.

When homosalate and oxybenzone were assessed at their maximum currently permitted concentrations in general body sunscreens, they did not achieve that safety margin.

That's a finding we think Australian consumers should know about.

How does that compare internationally? Australia isn't alone in re-examining these ingredients. The EU has already moved further — homosalate has been restricted there to face-only use at a maximum concentration of 7.34%, well below what's still currently permitted for full-body use in Australia. It's a useful reminder that regulatory caution on these ingredients isn't a uniquely Australian concern.

So why are these ingredients still allowed?

Regulation doesn't change overnight.

The TGA is now going through the regulatory process of determining appropriate new limits for these ingredients.

It has stated that homosalate and oxybenzone can potentially be absorbed through the skin and may cause harmful effects when used at high concentrations, over large areas and for extended periods.

Importantly, the TGA describes its proposed restrictions as precautionary. The safety signals are primarily based on animal studies involving high and prolonged exposure, rather than evidence of harm in people using sunscreen.

Worth watching: the process itself has become part of the story. Documents released under Freedom of Information laws in mid-2026 show the TGA's own review had flagged concerns about homosalate relating to the endocrine system, fertility and development as far back as 2025 — and that a decision on restricting it was delayed following representations from industry stakeholders during the consultation process, while restrictions on oxybenzone proceeded on a separate timeline. It's a good example of why these reviews are worth following closely rather than treated as a one-off news cycle: the ingredient list, the timeline, and the final permitted concentrations can all still shift before anything is finalised.

Why this story has parents especially worried

Much of the recent media coverage has zeroed in on children specifically, and it's worth addressing that directly.

A 9News investigation put a spotlight on the fact that homosalate and other flagged UV filters turn up in some well-known kids' sunscreen products, including roll-ons and sprays marketed for children and babies — the kind parents apply generously, every day, for months of the year. The Courier-Mail has separately reported on a study finding a sunscreen chemical in a large proportion of Queensland children tested, coverage that understandably struck a nerve given how sun-exposed Queensland kids are. A Queensland parliamentary petition calling for these ingredients to be excluded from schools and government-funded projects has since gathered close to 1,500 signatures.

It's a real and reasonable thing for parents to want more clarity on. At the same time, the scientists interviewed alongside these stories have consistently made a point of adding context: toxicologists quoted by the ABC note that "the dose makes the poison" — the animal studies behind the TGA's concerns used doses far higher than anything a child would be exposed to through normal sunscreen use, and no clinical study in humans has yet shown an effect on fertility, hormones or fetal development at sunscreen-level exposure. That's not a reason to dismiss the concern, but it is the context that's often missing from a 30-second news segment.

Where we land: parents don't need to panic, but choosing a zinc-based formula for children — the way we always have — is a perfectly reasonable way to sidestep the question altogether while the TGA's consultation plays out.

Our view? Choose carefully.

Sun protection is essential, particularly in Australia.

But if a sunscreen ingredient at its maximum permitted concentration doesn't meet the TGA's own safety margin for long-term, we would caution against using these.

Why we've always chosen zinc oxide

Wotnot sunscreens use zinc oxide as the active sunscreen ingredient.

We made that choice over 16 years ago. Long before it was cool

We've always understood that sunscreen is an everyday product and so should be as natural as possible. In fact, we formulate our sunscreens under our BarrierKind™ philosophy. Not only to protect against UV, but also to support and strengthen the skin's natural barrier.

We want families to feel comfortable applying sunscreen generously and regularly, from childhood to centenarians.

The TGA's review doesn't change the most important sun-safety message: Keep protecting your skin from UV.

But perhaps it should encourage all of us to turn the bottle around and take a closer look at the ingredients providing that protection.

Because what protects your skin matters.

The bottom line: don't stop wearing sunscreen. The TGA itself is clear that the benefits of sunscreen continue to outweigh the risks far, and there are no bans, recalls or warnings on any product currently on shelves. This is about which ingredients you choose to protect your skin with — not whether to protect it at all.

Sources: TGA, "Safety review of seven active sunscreen ingredients"; TGA, "TGA to consult on additional controls for some sunscreen ingredients"; SBS News; The Conversation, "How safe are the chemicals in sunscreen? A pharmacology expert explains"; Australian Sunscreen Council FOI release, July 2026; 9News Australia investigation; The Courier-Mail; ABC News, "Hormone-disrupting chemicals in sunscreens — are they a safety risk?"; Queensland Parliament Petition 4642-26.

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