Why you shouldn’t count on SPF for all of your sun protection: CBC’s Marketplace Cheat Sheet | CBC News
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Miss something this week? Don’t panic. The CBC’s Marketplace rounds up the consumer and health news you need.
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We want to know what consumer protection questions you have for the federal government
Next week, the live taping of Marketplace‘s season finale will take place.
As part of the event, our co-hosts Asha Tomlinson and Chris Glover will speak with Karim Bardeesy, parliamentary secretary to Industry Minister Melanie Joly. Joly oversees the federal Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA), which researches consumer issues, develops tools to help inform consumers and works with other jurisdictions. The office also provides funding to non-profit consumer organizations.
Experts and advocates have told us consumer protection in Canada is confusing and fragmented between federal and provincial governments, and that competition is weak. They also say stronger enforcement is needed, along with more funding for non-profit consumer groups.
We want to know what consumer protection questions you have for the minister’s office. Share the questions you’d like us to ask by filling out the form in this link.
Why you shouldn’t count on SPF for all of your sun protection
Dermatologist Julia Carroll and the Marketplace team use a special camera to reveal sun damage invisible to the naked eye, and provide tips on how to protect your skin.
The SPF number printed on sunscreen — meant to convey how much protection you’re getting — doesn’t always match what’s inside, a new CBC Marketplace investigation has found. That means Canadians who rely on sunscreen to protect themselves from the sun may be left with a false sense of security.
Marketplace sent a top-selling sunscreen labelled SPF 50 to five accredited laboratories in Canada and the U.S. to test the product inside the bottle. We got back a roller-coaster of results and an inside look at a testing system with almost no oversight.
The labs conducted the same test a manufacturer would to determine what SPF number to put on the label. All five told Marketplace the product was a different SPF: 34, 50, 60, 44 and 15.
CBC is not identifying the product tested since the process of determining an SPF was the focus of the investigation, not the product itself. Similar studies have shown that variability is surprisingly common in the sunscreen testing space.
“The results are really quite worrying, aren’t they?” said Brian Diffey, a professor emeritus of photobiology at Newcastle University in England who’s spent his career studying sunscreen and how people apply it.
They raise a question, he said: “Which one was right?”
Health Canada, which is responsible for regulating sunscreen in Canada, did not comment on Marketplace‘s testing results.
Read more from Marketplace journalists Jenny Cowley, Michelle McCann and Christine Birak.
Edmonton woman frustrated by 18-month battle with Equifax and TransUnion to fix credit rating
A 23-year-old engineer’s credit rating tanked after fraudulent debts were reported in her name. She says Equifax and TransUnion did little to help her until Go Public got involved.
Zoe Lorenz-Boser of Edmonton says she got the phone call in October 2024 — and still hasn’t forgotten it.
The 23-year-old mechanical engineer was at work at a construction company when someone from a collections agency called and told her she owed thousands of dollars on a credit card opened in her name. Lorenz-Boser said the caller claimed to know where she lived and worked, and threatened to garnish her wages, seize her car and ruin her life if she didn’t pay immediately.
“I argued to the point of frustrated crying,” said Lorenz-Boser. “Stating repeatedly that this wasn’t my debt. I’ve never opened these accounts.”
Lorenz-Boser was the victim of fraud. Someone — possibly more than one person — had taken out credit in her name with Telus, Shaw and PC Financial and racked up $20,000 in debt.
It was the beginning of an “extremely frustrating” 18-month fight to repair her credit record with Canada’s two dominant credit-rating agencies, Equifax and TransUnion.
Experts say her experience is all too common, in part because the corporations are regulated under both provincial and federal laws, making accountability complex.
“You have to get 13 provincial and territorial legislatures and one federal government co-ordinated on this,” said Neil Hartung, a Toronto-based lawyer with expertise in consumer protection and a director with the Consumers Council of Canada. “So good luck with that.”
Neither Equifax nor TransUnion agreed to interview requests. Both said they could not answer specific questions about Lorenz-Boser’s experience, citing privacy concerns — even though she granted both companies permission to speak about her files.
Read more from CBC Go Public‘s Erica Johnson and Ana Komnenic.
What else is going on?
Canadian travellers with trips planned to Mexico weighing whether or not to stay home
Travellers wanting to rebook, cancel likely on hook for trips without proper insurance
Ford recalling more than half a million vehicles in Canada due to software issue
Recall also applies to some 4.3 million vehicles in the U.S.
Instagram will alert parents about their teens’ suicide-related searches
Alerts will begin this week for parents in Canada, U.S., Britain and Australia
Federal government seeking input to develop men’s and boys’ health strategy
Answers can be submitted until June 1, strategy to be released this year
Pre-construction condo buyers face steep losses as Toronto prices slide
After values drop, buyers often on the hook for a higher price they agreed to years before
Catch up on past episodes of Marketplace on CBC Gem.