Lab Rat Work Starts Tonight – Video Diary Coming Very Soon.

Hi all,

I just wanted to announce that tonight us lab rats are getting measured up and benchmarked for the trial on nanoparticles in sunscreens. The CSIRO here in Australia are running a trial looking at the fate of tiny particles of Zinc Oxide in a sunscreen formulation. I am one of the lab rats who will have the cream applied and then sit on the beach for a while. After that I will have urine and blood tests done at regular invervals to see where the Zinc has gone.

The studies carried out in preparation for this work showed no penetration of the Zinc Oxide into the skin and into the bloodstream. However, like all things scienfific the testing procedure has been improved, the dosing of Zinc has been modified to be more in keeping with consumer products and more people have been recruited.

This is one small step for me but one giant leap for consumerkind if we can finally find out what happens to the sunscreen active (Zinc Oxide in this case) when it is put onto the skin as a nanoparticle (these are tiny – 400 fit on one hair width).

Although I am not a big fan of blood tests I am looking forward to being part of this trail as I for one want to make sure my kids are protected from skin cancer in the best possible way.

How are we tracking the ZINC??? We are using a very expensive and rare form of zinc that could have only entered the body through the sunscreen. This will remove any incorrect measurements that could be got by zinic entering the body in other ways.

Want to know what being a lab rat looks like? Check out the You Tube page over the coming weeks – I am going to attempt to do a video diary to prove that no animals were harmed but some people may have been!

Amanda