Two chemical sun filters that are ingredients in sunscreen products have been tested for their dark toxicity and possible toxicity to mouse cells after UV irradiation. Increased toxicity as a result of breakdown of a UVB filter, octyl methoxycinnamate, was observed. UV radiation absorbed by the pure chemical sunscreen may lead to breakdown to more reactive chemical compounds than the unexposed sunscreen filter. The UVA filter included in our tests, butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane, was also toxic in the dark, however, it was the more photostable of the two and no additional significant toxicity was induced by UV irradiation. It can be concluded that the two sun filters are toxic to cells in the dark, but the biological role of this dark toxicity in the skin is not clear. Unstable sun filters may be broken down by UV to form photoproducts that are potentially toxic.
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Butt et al. (2000) studied this question.