Did You Know

Did you know that you are NOT supposed to apply both sunscreen and insect repellent at the same time? I seriously didnt know that! This piece of news is so important to me cuz I started using insect repellent a while ago because of the onset of dengue fever.  A Taiwanese woman applied both and within 10 minutes, red rashes appeared on her body and she lost consciousness. How can these seemingly helpful protective agents be potentially fatal?

Answer: The insect repellent that she applied contains DEET and that chemical interacted with one of the ingredients oxybenzone from the suncreen which caused the proportion of DEET to increase by up to 3 times. When absorbed by the skin, it resulted in a potentially fatal allergic reaction. Accordingly, the woman was said to have been poisoned by these chemicals. Doctors have advised that once the sunscreen is applied, the insect repellent should not be sprayed on at all. If you really must have the two on, then a time lapse of half an hour is required.

Moral of the story: You cant have the best of both worlds. Either have your sunscreen on or insect repellent. Dun be greedy and want both forms of protection. In my case, I'll choose insect repellent cuz it's the dengue season again in Singapore and the deadly aedes mosquito has claimed 3 lives so far.