Sunscreen Is Taxed As ‘Cosmetics’ In The UK. As A Skin Cancer Survivor, I’m Shocked | Jessica Zbinden-Webster
Tthere is no ideal time to be told you have skin cancer, but being 26 and a few weeks into a new job has to be one of the worst. I was standing in the middle of the open office when I felt a warm sensation flowing from my eye. I looked in my reflection and saw that, without warning, the clogged pore under my lower right eyelid had started to bleed. Badly. Embarrassed, I slunk away from my new colleagues to make an appointment with my GP, all the while telling myself that it couldnât be anything serious.
“That’s not a clogged pore. That looks like skin cancer,” the doctor said the next morning. “Are you using SPF?”
The answer was no. But after a tumor removal that included my lower eyelid, a skin graft from my arm to cover the hole left by the cancer, and several laser surgeries to make my eye function like a normal eye again, my casual attitude toward sunscreen changed. My face was disfigured by a cancerous tumor. On doctorâs orders, I started wearing sunscreen daily.
The most effective way to prevent skin cancer is to wear sunscreen on all exposed skin. It works by blocking the sun’s ultraviolet rays, which cause skin cells to mutate and eventually become cancerous. Melanoma â the deadliest type of skin cancer â may actually be preventable in nine out of ten cases simply by staying safe in the sun.
Sunscreen is a health essential, and not just for cancer-prone people like me. It benefits people of all skin tones, in all weathers and all seasons. So why does the UK government consider sunscreen a cosmetic product, and Charge 20% tax on every bottle sold?
It is shocking that kangaroo meat, chartered helicopters and chocolate chip cookies are VAT-free, but the Treasury charges VAT on life-saving sun cream. That can cost a few pounds extra on every purchase. In a cost crisis, every penny counts, and there is no justification for Britons to be deprived of basic disease prevention. Especially when the cookies at the cancer clinic are VAT-free.
If the government taxes sunscreen as a cosmetic product, consumers will use it as such. That’s one reason why australia and usa all sunscreen exempt of VAT equivalent taxes. By not following suit, the UK government is sending a dangerous message about the importance of sun safety to our public health.
It also gives the lie to the Brexit promise of tax freedoms. For years, the UK has EU membership was given as a reason for not abolishing VAT on sanitary products, despite public outcry. But in 2020, the 20% âtampon taxâ was abolished thanks to a campaign led by Laura Coryton. Now that weâve left the EU, the government can and should do the same for sunscreen.
The argument for abolishing VAT is not just about the cost to individuals. As far as the state is concerned, there is an intersecting economic and health-care argument for making sunscreen more accessible. Skin cancer is now the most common form of cancer in the UK, and the NHS spends around ÂŁ500 million per year to tackle it.
Rising incidences of skin cancer mean higher NHS spending. There could be more than 262,000 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer and 26,500 new cases of melanoma per year in the UK by 2038-40. That’s an increase of around 225,000 cases and 20,800 cases respectively today. The status quo is unsustainable.
The rising rates of skin cancer among young people should also be a cause for concern. I am living proof that the disease can occur in your twenties. With a recurrence rate from maximum 60% for cases like mine, it is likely that I will be looking at a lifetime of NHS visits for the condition. That is not cheap.
But young people are at risk long before they notice a suspicious lesion. We know that childhood sunburn has a huge impact on the chance of developing skin cancer later in life. Yet, childrenâs sunscreen also has a 20% tax. Childrenâs clothing, shoes and bicycle helmets are not subject to VAT, but their skin safety is.
It is clear that skin cancer is affecting our health service as much as its patients. The solution is not to focus on treating skin cancer through the NHS. It should be about preventing it in the first place. That should start with encouraging consumers to wear sunscreen regularly by removing VAT on SPF products.
I donât want another twenty-something to go through what I went through. It was devastating and it still is. As any cancer patient will tell you, the ordeal isnât over when treatment is over. I still worry about every new spot and freckle. The best antidote to that anxiety is to make sure I wear sunscreen religiously, despite the fact that every purchase costs me 20% more than it should.
With cancer rates rising, no one should have to pay taxes to protect themselves and their children from skin cancer. That’s why I started a campaign, Abolish the SPF taxa petition to the government to abolish VAT on sunscreen. The campaign is supported by Coryton, the brains behind the Stop Taxing Periods movement, and I hope it will make a similar difference. If even one more person dies from a preventable disease, it will have been worth it.