I prefer sunscreen clothing, partly because I don’t like to worry about stuff like this, partly because re-applying sunscreen is a pain in the butt, partly because I sweat a lot and it always drips off me, and partly because it’s bad for the water and aquatic life. Long-sleeve sunscreen shirt with toggle face covering and a hat.
I do the same thing with long sleeves long pants and wide brim hats all year long as UV can cause a flare up of my immune system. Easy and it doesn’t wear off.
…and many sunscreens have been determined to cause damage to marine life. Specifically corals.
Can’t cover my face and sun bounces off water to your face.
I have gloves, Kokatat wide hat, long sleeve kokatat shirts, sunglasses , but face is still exposed.
There are gaiters and face masks that are surprisingly comfortable. I have a shirt with one attached - you can wear it down and it just looks like a cowl; or you can pull it up over your ears. Works really well and isn’t even hot. Looks like this:
My brother wears a mask on the water because he has overexposed himself to the south Florida sun for years.
Idea behind sun blocks is reduce the damage from harmful UV … problem is that some sun blocks are more toxic than others.
This web site has a toxicity comparison of sun blocks: https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/about-the-sunscreens/?order=score%20INC&ptype=sunscreen&start=100
The problem with benzene contamination come from companies buying their ingredients from China and India. It’s almost impossible to find any US manufacturer that uses benzene in a synthetic process or formulation because of tight regulatory controls. Particularly in China the suppliers cheat and use chemicals that have not been synthesized using agreed upon methods for production. The problem is widespread in almost all chemicals that come from China, producing dangerous impurities in pharmaceuticals and food.
I think I read they also clean the machines with benzene which caused it in previous cases.
Any spray sunscreen will be worse to begin with. First, they have a propellant that will be some chemical. Second, the sun screen needs to be altered to form droplets (probably other chemicals). Third, even if no chemicals are added, you will inhale some of the actual sun blocker particles.
So assuming the actual sun-blocking material is similar, a regular “smear on” sunblock will be much better.