Whitfield, Dingell, and 50+ Members of Congress Call on President Obama to Ensure Consumers Have the Latest Sunscreens Available

Press Release

U.S. Representatives Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), were joined late yesterday by a bipartisan coalition of 52 Members of Congress in sending a letter to President Obama asking for his assistance to ensure the repeated calls for urgency in skin cancer prevention are heeded at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The full letter is attached. Currently, eight sunscreen ingredient applications have been pending at the FDA, some for over a decade, without final decisions despite enactment of the bipartisan Sunscreen Innovation Act signed into law last November.

"Skin cancer is a growing epidemic in this country that is only getting worse according to the U.S. Surgeon General. Yet, Americans have gone more than a decade without the kinds of innovative sunscreen products citizens in other countries have enjoyed for years," said Dingell. "This year alone, five million Americans will be diagnosed with skin cancer. We owe it to them to work together to solve this public health crisis."

"When the Sunscreen Innovation Act was signed into law last year, Americans expected that they would soon be able to get the latest in sunscreen technology long available to citizens of countries all over the world. Unfortunately, eight months have passed and the FDA has yet to approve any of these sunscreens," said Whitfield. "We are hopeful this letter to the President will engage the White House and help solve this sunscreen backlog at the FDA."

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