May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and with skin cancer remaining the most common cancer in the U.S., affecting 1 in 5 Americans by age 70, it’s never been more important to start sun protection early.
Despite widespread awareness, daily SPF use is still inconsistent. Building strong sunscreen habits in childhood is key! Helping parents normalize daily SPF from a young age can set the foundation for lifelong protection and significantly reduce the risk of UV-related damage over time.
Here to shed more light on the subject is Dr. Mark Mitchnick, founder of Burnd, the high performance skincare and SPF brand. A scientist and entrepreneur, Mitchnick is the inventor of transparent zinc oxide (Z-Cote), the breakthrough that transformed mineral sunscreens from thick and chalky to wearable and globally adopted. But he’s also a parent. Mitchnick didn’t just launch another sunscreen brand, he set out to create the best sunscreen on the planet and one that he could trust for his own family.
Over a three-decade career spanning pediatrics, complex drug delivery systems, global health innovation and FDA- submitted technologies, he founded Particle Sciences, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical formulation and current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) manufacturing labs. He also served as chief science officer developing the first and only woman-controlled HIV prevention technology now used across Africa.
But Burnd didn’t begin in a lab, it began at home. As a pediatrician, Mitchnick saw children and their parents repeatedly using products that simply didn’t work— sometimes because the SPF was off but mostly because they felt so horrible that they were just not used properly. Burnd SPF 41 offers broad-spectrum protection and is water-resistant for up to 80 minutes, designed to keep up with active, everyday use. It dries clear, won’t run into your eyes, and delivers a non-greasy finish. Free of parabens and fragrance, it’s dermatologist recommended and developed by a team of a pediatrician, dermatologist and dermatopathologist, making it a trusted choice for all ages.
With increasing online chatter claiming sunscreen is “toxic” or causes cancer, their perspective is especially relevant right now as families prepare for summer and try to separate fact from fiction.
