Many dermatologists who sell chemical sunscreen products in their own offices are improperly, and perhaps illegally, counseling patients that sunscreen prevents skin cancer — an advertising claim that the U.S. government does not allow sunscreen retailers to make, a report in the San Francisco Post’s on-line issue alleges.

San Francisco on-line journalist Harmon Leon, who nailed the dermatology world for apparent wide-spread insurance reimbursement fraud in a July Huffington Post article, went undercover again in dermatology offices and found that derms and their offices are selling $35 two-ounce bottles of chemical sunscreen — about 20 times the price of a typical drug-store sunscreen product — by telling clients their product is better at preventing skin cancer.

Sunscreen manufacturers and retailers may only claim the product prevents sunburn. In fact, according to Dr. Frank Gorham of the University of California-San Diego, most studies on sunscreen show sunscreen users have higher skin cancer rates. (Here’s what the U.S. Government says.)

“While dermatologists give a confirmation that sunscreens prevent cancer, the FDA, EWG, and even the National Cancer Institute say otherwise,” Leon wrote, citing an Environmental Working Group web page showing those group’s positions on sunscreen. “On the flip side, no one is talking about the most obvious effect of chemical sunscreen use: blocking Vitamin D production in your skin.”

The dermatology offices Leon visited also dismissed any product safety questions about sunscreen, despite the fact the doctors were recommending daily use of the products and that research has begun to question whether or not over-use of sunscreen exposes users to toxic doses of chemicals such as oxybenzone. The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based health safety coalition, has called for legitimate product safety testing for chemical sunscreens.

Smart Tan recommends chemical sunscreen usage only when sunburn is a possibility, a position in contrast to year-round usage recommendations made by dermatology and groups affiliated with dermatology.

To read Leon’s story click here.