Are sunscreens safe for kids?

Q. I recently read that some sunscreens contain hormones that might affect young children. I am an avid user of sunscreen. I’m concerned about any adverse effects on my children, especially my 9-year-old daughter.

What specific ingredient should I be avoiding? When I called the company, it said it had never heard of hormones in sunscreen. I do not want hormones absorbing through my skin and especially the skin of my 9-year-old.

A. As far as we can tell, there are no hormones added to sunscreens. There are, however, chemicals in some sunscreens that may have estrogenic activity, particularly when they are combined (Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Nov. 15, 2006).

No one knows if this poses a risk for you or your children. If you wish to avoid such compounds in sunscreen, look for brands that contain physical blockers such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. According to research published in The Lancet (online May 3, 2007), such ingredients are safe for children and highly effective at preventing sun damage from both UVA and UVB radiation.

Q. My husband takes Coreg, Lanoxin, amiodarone, Lasix, metolazone, Lipitor, aspirin, Uroxatral, Renagel, potassium and insulin. He also gets a shot of Procrit weekly for severe anemia caused by kidney problems.

He takes so many pills, it gets very confusing. Even though he uses a pill container to help him keep things straight, I discovered amiodarone in with his Lasix, so he was taking double doses of this heart medicine some days. If he thinks he forgot a pill, he takes an extra. Does he really need all this medicine?

A. Only your husband’s doctors can determine if there are medications he may not need. He does need someone to review all his drugs, however. We have detected a number of potentially dangerous interactions among the drugs on this long list.

We are sending you our Guide to Drugs and Older People with a Drug Safety Questionnaire to help his doctors and pharmacist evaluate his medications. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $2 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (58 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons’ People’s Pharmacy, No. O-85, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It can also be downloaded for $2 from our Web site www.peoplespharmacy.com.

Q. Since quinine sulfate is no longer available for leg cramps, I wonder if there is any danger in drinking “tonic water” just for the flavor. Quinine is an ingredient, I believe.

A. Although the Food and Drug Administration has banned the use of prescription quinine pills to treat leg cramps, the agency has not proposed eliminating tonic water from the market. If it did, a lot of people who enjoy gin and tonic might revolt.

Readers aware of the quinine in tonic water have put it to use: “I have been drinking tonic water with quinine for about two months now, and my leg and foot cramps have disappeared completely.”

The FDA banned quinine as a treatment for leg cramps because sensitive people may develop a potentially deadly blood disorder. Although this complication is rare, it is extremely serious. One reader reported being hospitalized after drinking a 5-ounce glass of tonic water. She developed a terrible skin reaction, and her blood platelets plummeted. She was told that in her case even a drop of tonic water could be lethal.