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Abstract
It has been shown that some of the compounds used in sunscreens form harmful reactive species upon exposure to UV radiation, which may counteract protective benefits the sunscreen may provide. The protection provided for Saccharomyces cerevisiae by two sunscreen chemicals, padimate-O and benzophenone, during a UV light survival assay outweighed potential negative effects that the chemicals may have had. No effect on S. cerevisiae was observed when the yeast were subjected to chemicals exposed to UVA light, suggesting that the parameters in this experiment were insufficient to generate free radicals in these chemicals, or were unable to maintain the chemicals in an excited state long enough to produce any effect on cells. Further, the effects of intracellular free radical generation on the yeast cells were minimal and were obscured by cell death caused by direct UV radiation.