Title : Sunpod: A zero-waste approach to enhancing sunscreen adoption and skin cancer prevention
Abstract:
Skin cancer is the most common cancer type in the United States: one in every five Americans is expected to develop skin cancer during their lifetime. Sunscreen reduces the risk of skin cancer yet it remains underutilized: only 12.3% of men and 29.0% of women reported using sunscreen consistently in a 2020 National Center for Health Statistics survey. Reasons for this low usage include lack of commitment, barriers to application, unpleasant side effects, and undesirable product characteristics — including inconvenience (45.8%), environmental impact (17.1%), sticky or oily consistency (36.2%), residual white cast (19.7%), and unpleasant odor (13.8%).
Sunpod is a patent-pending product funded by the National Science Foundation that provides a zero-waste alternative to existing forms of sunscreen designed to remedy consumer concerns. Consisting of a shelf stable wax- and clay-based outer shell filled with a mineral sunscreen interior that is smashed and combined during application, the pod offers a single-use skin protection option to avoid the hassle of carrying plastic sunscreen bottles or aerosol cans. Transported using cardboard tubes, it also mitigates need for plastic packaging, which constitutes 40% of the eight million tons of plastic entering waterways annually and, when contaminated with sunscreen, hastens microplastic pollution. Further, our sunscreen formula moisturizes skin without a greasy residue, contains essential oils for scent and insect repellence, and is tinted for easier blending into darker skin tones. In addressing these concerns, Sunpod is well-poised for broader usage, reducing risk for and burden of skin cancer on communities and health infrastructures, respectively.
Ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometric analysis of Sunpod and popular name-brand 30 SPF sunscreens revealed similar peaks around 315-400 nm range, suggesting that Sunpod provides comporable ultraviolet (UV) A protection. Sunpod also had a higher peak in the 280-315 nm range, revealing an increased protection against UVB rays compared to market products. This indicates that Sunpod’s proprietary shell can be filled with FDA-approved market sunscreens, providing a boost in UV protection. Additionally, the Sunpod’s exterior was swabbed for bacterial growth; revealing no bacterial growth after overnight incubation on agar, while the control plate had colonies. This suggests antibacterial activity likely due to the reduced pH of the formula designed to match the skin. Physical durability testing showed a compressive yield strength of 72.915 kPa and heat testing demonstrated that structural integrity is maintained for over 45 minutes at 45° C, the temperature that best resembles that of a car on a hot day. These findings demonstrate the exceptional potential Sunpod has as a packaging solution — it should face no issues in daily use, brought to the beach, or even dispensed from a vending machine.
Sunpod is vegan, all-natural, organic, hypoallergenic, bug-repelling, and tinted. Designed to capture as many nuances and edge cases of the broader population as possible, this seemingly simple product demonstrates a new form of green cosmetics focused on enhancing sunscreen adoption to reduce skin cancer incidence while directly addressing the needs of those who have been traditionally overlooked by the skincare and cosmetics packaging industries.
