Chemical filter

Avobenzone

The main traditional UVA1 filter. TGA called current Australian use low risk. It breaks down in sunlight unless another filter stabilises it.

Avobenzone is a dibenzoylmethane UVA1 filter with a peak near 357 nm. It is still the workhorse long-UVA filter in many Australian and US formulas. It is photounstable on its own and is usually paired with octocrylene or a modern triazine such as bemotrizinol.

Australia allows 5% (US 3%, EU 5%). FDA maximum-use trials detected it in plasma above the 0.5 ng/mL data-requirement threshold. TGA’s July 2025 review of seven actives found the Australian margin of safety above 100 and classed current use as low risk. Some experimental endocrine activity has been reported; TGA said that evidence is not enough to establish causality in humans.

FDA still lists it among filters that need more modern GRASE data. That is a data gap, not a finding that it is unsafe at labelled Australian use.

Sources

Sunscreens with Avobenzone

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