By Kathleen Berger, Executive Producer for Science and Technology

Cyber Monday is a peak time for blue light exposure from your devices! Siteman Cancer Center’s dermatologist Basia M. Michalski, MD, said there are ongoing studies about skin damage from blue light. Michalski is an assistant professor of dermatology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She’s a micrographic surgeon and dermatologic oncologist at Siteman Cancer Center, as well as cosmetic dermatologist who can advise patients about blue light protection.

During the Cyber Monday shopping experience, is blue light protection something you or your Secret Santa should add to the cart?

“There are new sunscreens that could protect from blue light and so maybe patients should look to invest in some of those to actually protect from blue light,” Michalski said. “Sunscreens have to actually be visible on the skin. So, tinted sunscreens are really more helpful to protect from blue light, because they can reflect that blue light. With tinted sunscreens, the thing that actually gives them tint is an ingredient called iron oxide. And so, there are a bunch of different formulations of different amounts of iron oxide or different colors of iron oxide and those can protect from blue light.”

 Michalski said there’s a lot to learn about blue light exposure from our devices, especially with the way people are glued to computers and phones. Cyber Monday is a peak time, so maybe it’s time to give it some thought!

“There are a lot of studies ongoing, in vitro and then also in vivo, looking to see how blue light could affect skin cells in the lab setting but then also how could it affect skin at a patient level. I think that there will be more and more studies coming out, especially because I don’t see our exposure from blue light going down anytime soon with our computers and in smartphones,” said Michalski.

Studies about blue light are focused on any risk of skin cancer and skin damage from blue light exposure.

“We haven’t seen that blue light could necessarily lead to skin cancer. I think most of the research right now is showing that blue light can accelerate photoaging,” she said. “What we’re finding more and more recently is that the majority of radiation from the sun actually reaching the Earth is actually in the form of visible light, which would include blue light. So blue light is part of the visible light spectrum. And blue light has the highest energy of the visible light, and it is thought that possibly it could accelerate photoaging.”

Michalski follows the research closely and informs patients who should ask about blue light exposure concerns.

“What they found is that blue light can increase certain things in our skin, something called reactive oxygen species and then also increasing the level of what we call MMPs, matrix metalloproteinases. Those two combined can accumulate, and if enough of that accumulates, it could lead to damage to our skin cells. So, it could lead to more pigmentation or brown spots. It can also break down collagen faster and decrease our levels of elasticity in our skin, that leads to skin sagging. Most of the attention on blue light has more to do with photoaging than necessarily skin cancer.”