Sunscreen--how safe is it??

The EWG recently updated their sunscreen database for 2010.  I thought I had safe sunscreen.  Wow, was I wrong!  This list has identified potential ingredients that may be harmful.  Unfortunately the stores are completely stocked with the items that are potentially harmful.  It's like they're saying... HEY, use me!  Use me!  You know you should use something, it's better than nothing...

But is it really?  Is using bad sunscreen better than no sunscreen?

I was never a active user of sunscreen (maybe SPF 4).  In fact, when I was a teenager and totally knew more than anyone else, I would lather baby oil on my skin and sit in my back yard.  I would sit, literally, for hours.  I'd read books, have a snack, or nap.  My summers were consumed on my lawn chair. 

Almost 20 years later, I can see the results of torturing my skin.  That's what it was, torture.  My skin had no chance of survival with all the baby oil I had used.  My skin, right now, is not as bad as you think.  I do have freckles.  I have dark freckles and light freckles.  Then I do have freckles from the sun.  Freckles sound so much better than sun spots.  But they're there and a piece of me feels burned, demolished.  These sunspots seem to appear darker when I've been in the sun.  I feel like I'm being tricked and my skin looks tanned, but really, they're just my sunspots getting darker.  UGH!

So I have issues trying to turn back time.  I'm beyond help at this point and I can only try and stop what is already happening.  I've been using sunscreen that costs four times the amount of the common sunscreens you see on every shelf.  I've been spending so much more money on sunscreen that (I hope) is safer. 

Even more important, I can stop these crazy sunspots from attacking my kids body.  It's only fair to his future to keep him safe and healthy.  Because you know, the summer should be fun.  We should be able to play in the sun, the water, the sand.  We should be able to do that without wearing a full body suit.  We should feel safe and protected with a sunscreen that will do what it has promised to do.  Protect our skin.