Sunscreen being applied by hand, the everyday act the two removed ingredients, PABA and trolamine salicylate, have not been part of for years.
National Cancer Institute
Illustrative. The tube shown is unbranded and unidentified, not one of the two removed ingredients, and neither person is connected to the FDA order.
The FDA Just Removed Two Sunscreen Ingredients You Have Probably Never Used
Every so often a regulatory headline sounds alarming and turns out to be almost entirely reassuring once you read past it. This is one of those, and it is also a genuinely useful piece of consumer education about something most people have never heard of: a sunscreen ingredient that can make you allergic to an antibiotic.
- On September 10, 2026, the FDA issued a final order removing PABA and trolamine salicylate as permitted active ingredients from the US sunscreen monograph, finding that for both the risks outweigh the benefits.
- PABA can cause allergic reactions and cross sensitize a person to sulfonamide antibiotics, thiazide diuretics, and local anesthetics like benzocaine. Trolamine salicylate carries anticoagulant and salicylate toxicity risks.
- The FDA says it is not aware of any currently marketed US sunscreen containing either ingredient, so there is no product to check and nothing to throw out.
- The order does not take effect until September 11, 2027, so there is no action for a reader to take today.
What actually changed
On September 10, 2026, the FDA issued a final administrative order removing aminobenzoic acid, commonly called PABA, and trolamine salicylate as permitted active ingredients from the OTC sunscreen monograph, concluding that for both ingredients the risks outweigh the benefits. This is the subtraction half of the same monograph modernization that added the UV filter bemotrizinol back in June, and it is the first time in decades the United States has removed a sunscreen active ingredient outright rather than only adding new ones.
Why each one failed
PABA causes significant rates of allergic and photoallergic skin reactions, some severe. PABA also carries a cross sensitization risk: exposure can make a person reactive to structurally related substances including sulfonamide antibiotics, thiazide diuretics, and local anesthetics such as benzocaine and procaine. That is a durable, systemic consequence from a topical product, and it is the detail worth remembering even outside of sunscreen.
exposure can make a person reactive to structurally related substances including sulfonamide antibiotics
Trolamine salicylate has anticoagulant properties with the potential to increase bleeding risk, and as a salicylate it can cause gastrointestinal distress and bleeding, ototoxicity, hypersensitivity reactions, worsening of asthma, and acute salicylate toxicity at high exposure.
Honest caveat
This is a regulatory action, not new science. No new study was published, and the safety concerns behind both ingredients are long established. The order is not final in the sense of being unchangeable: it does not take effect until September 11, 2027 and can still be disputed through the statutory process before then, so "removed from the monograph, effective September 2027" is the accurate phrasing, and "banned" overstates it. Because no marketed US product appears to contain either ingredient, there is genuinely no action for a reader to take, and any post framing this as urgent would be overclaiming. The Federal Register docket text itself was not retrieved for this piece; the FDA's own public question and answer page and three independent regulatory analyses are the basis here.
What this means for you
If you are already choosing sunscreens carefully, this changes nothing about what you need to buy or avoid today, since neither ingredient is in current US products. What it does give you is a real answer the next time someone asks whether US sunscreen regulation ever actually removes something once it is approved. The honest answer, as of this year, is yes, twice, in the same modernization that also added a new filter. Read the label the same way you always have, and if trolamine salicylate specifically concerns you, remember it can still appear in topical pain relief products even though it is gone from sunscreen.
Primary sources
- Questions and Answers: FDA's regulatory actions on over the counter sunscreen. U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
- FDA Issues Final Order Removing Two Sunscreen Ingredients from Monograph. Lachman Consultants, September 2026.
- There Goes the Sun(screen): FDA Removes PABA and Trolamine Salicylate From OTC Monograph. ArentFox Schiff.
- FDA Finalizes Order Removing Two Filters From OTC Sunscreen Monograph. Citeline HBW Insight.
Common questions
Do I need to check my sunscreen for these ingredients?
No. The FDA says it is not aware of any currently marketed US sunscreen containing PABA or trolamine salicylate. PABA fell out of commercial use decades ago because of allergy concerns, so this order is mostly the regulatory record catching up to a market reality that already existed.
Does this mean these ingredients are banned starting today?
Not yet. The FDA issued a final order on September 10, 2026, but it does not take effect until September 11, 2027, and could still be disputed through the statutory process before then. Removed from the monograph, effective September 2027, is the accurate description, not banned.
Is trolamine salicylate gone from every product now?
No, and this is a common point of confusion. Trolamine salicylate remains present in some topical pain relief products, which fall under a separate monograph this order does not touch. Only its use as a sunscreen active ingredient is affected.
Stay Curious.
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