Time for Change – Assuring the Future of Sun Protection
Looking back at our sell-out conference in 2023, I remember choosing the main theme carefully, ‘A Decade of Challenge – The Uncertain Future of Sun Protection’, which seemed to capture perfectly the years ahead. Indeed, we are now living in that decade – no less full of challenge and uncertainty!
As I look around today, however, there is another word that describes what I see and sense… ‘CHANGE’.
As I write this, the 2006 European Commission Recommendation on Sunscreen Products – which, for 18 years, has formed the fundamental framework for the way these products are tested and labelled for half a billion consumers – is being re-opened and revised comprehensively. Will we finally move away from numerical protection factors? Will we recognise and harmonise so-called Primary and Secondary sunscreen products? Will we dispense with unhelpful consumer-facing references to ‘UVB’ and ‘UVA’? To what extent will this revision form a template for other geographies, worldwide?
At the same time, two new ISO alternative SPF test methods – ISO23675, the In Vitro ‘Double Plate’ Method and ISO23698, Hybrid Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy – are being published as final International Standards, fulfilling the vision for non-human testing set out years ago by both the European Commission and FDA… the single-greatest shake-up in our industry in decades. How will these new methods be received and deployed? Will we now see a more level playing-field, particularly as we consider this change in methodology in tandem with a change in labelling?
This next Sun Conference in 2025, therefore, will pick up where we left off in 2023. A world-class, balanced, carefully-curated faculty and agenda will once again dissect, analyse and discuss these issues – and more.
One more thing to mention. The good news is that, based on the overwhelming demand for places in 2023, we have booked a larger auditorium (the Wolfson Theatre) at the London College of Physicians. However, as we have already had significant interest in our 2025 conference, I strongly recommend you book early!
On that note, I very much look forward to meeting again – in person – in London on the 24 & 25 June 2025.
- Professor Paul Matts, Programme Director -
