Sunscreen brand Ultra Violette pulls popular product off shelf after SPF testing

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Ultra Violette announced it will be withdrawing its Lean Screen sunscreen product from the market. The company has revealed multiple tests of its Lean Screen product have returned SPF results ranging from four to 64.

Transcript

00:00In a statement directly to its customers today, essentially what Ultraviolet had to say boiled

00:08down to the fact that it can't guarantee what the SPF of that product actually is.

00:14You'll probably remember that this all kicked off earlier this year when consumer group

00:18Choice decided to test 20 popular sunscreens and 16 of them failed to meet the SPF on the

00:24label claim.

00:25Now, a bunch of sunscreens came in in the 40s and the 30s and the 20s, but this particular

00:30sunscreen came back, as you say, with an SPF of just four.

00:35So after defending its sunscreen and the testing that it had done to make sure that the SPF

00:40was what it said it was, Ultraviolet committed to go away and do some further testing.

00:46Today it's come back and said that it has done a range of tests and it now has eight sets

00:51of results which range from SPF 4 to SPF 64 and that that's an unacceptable variability.

00:59And so it had taken the decision to take that sunscreen, to withdraw that sunscreen from

01:03the market effective immediately.

01:06It also comes after an ABC investigation that found that eight of those sunscreens that didn't

01:11meet their label claims all had something in common, which is they had gone to the same

01:15overseas lab to get their original SPF tests done.

01:19And Ultraviolet has told the ABC that it will no longer be using that lab, nor will it be

01:24using the manufacturer that made that sunscreen.

01:26And it's also been very careful to point out that it is only this sunscreen in its line that's

01:31been affected, not its other sunscreens.

01:34And so the TGA is already looking into this.

01:39They've said that they're investigating the choice testing and that they will take regulatory

01:43action as required.

01:44We've checked in with them.

01:45They've said that they're aware of the recall, that they are involved in working with the

01:50company on that recall, but ultimately their investigation into this issue continues.

01:54Rachel, what should people do if they've been using this particular ultraviolet sunscreen?

02:00Well, the company says that people who have purchased it can get a refund and that, as

02:07I said to you before, it's taken these other measures.

02:09It's going to increase its testing kind of regularity of all of its products.

02:14It's going to stop using this testing lab.

02:17But essentially people who have used this sunscreen will get a refund and the whole thing will

02:22be withdrawn from the market.

02:24The TGA and other organisations like the Melanoma Institute are very keen for Australian consumers

02:29to keep using sunscreen despite these recent test results and despite this recall.

02:33A lot of those that didn't meet their label claim were in the 20s and 30s and they're

02:38keen for people to know that those sunscreens still do provide a significant degree of protection

02:44from the sun and therefore skin cancer and should still be used in conjunction with other

02:48sun safety measures.

02:49As you mentioned, Consumer Group Choice did the testing originally.

02:54Has it responded today?

02:57They have said, Choice has said that this announcement from ultraviolet today shows that there is a

03:03clear problem with regulation and SPF testing of sunscreen products that are available in Australia

03:09today.

03:10They've taken the opportunity to point out that had it not been for their testing, this product

03:13would still be on the shelves today.

03:15They have given the TGA a nudge themselves saying the TGA needs to give an urgent update

03:21on what it's doing and I think it's important to note that the TGA is the regulator in this

03:26space and that's where we need to be looking to see what's going to happen next.

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