BEMT

For the first time in the 21st century, the United States has approved a new sunscreen ingredient. Well, new to us. It’s called bemotrizinol, also known as BEMT, and it’s been available in Europe and Asia for years. But the peculiar way that sunscreen is regulated in the United States — as an over-the-counter drug rather than a cosmetic — had long prevented it from coming to American store shelves. In 2020, however, Congress ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to overhaul its sunscreen approval process […] After a review of relevant safety and efficacy data, bemotrizinol has become the first new sunscreen ingredient to be approved for sale in the US since the late 1990s. The Environmental Working Group, which has lobbied for bemotrizinol’s approval since 2019, called its approval “a monumental victory for health and wellness.”

2026 June 9, Dylan Scott, “The US just got its first new sunscreen in almost 30 years. America’s sunscreens have been stuck in the past. With BEMT, that’s finally changing”, in Vox