A young woman from Melbourne has blamed severe sunburn on faulty sunblock.
Taryn Hawken who has multiple sclerosis, went to an event with friends last month and spent most of the day in the sun.
The 19-year-old claims that she applied Banana Boat Sport SPF 30 Sunblock 45 minutes before she arrived and re-applied it “Every hour on the hour”.
But on the way home from the event, Hawken’s skin began to hurt. By the following morning she was in severe pain and her skin was blistering.
The sunburn triggered an MS attack which caused double vision in one eye and weakness in her right leg.
Hospital staff told Hawken that her sunburn is the worst they have seen.
Hawken told News.com.au that her severe sunburn is making it very difficult to care for her 11-month-old.
“It is near impossible for me to care for him,” she said.
“I’m emotionally scarred and physically scarred. I’m in so much pain that I can barely move.”
Banana Boat Australia spokeswoman Rachel Pullicino told News.com.au that the company is investigating Ms Hawken’s complaint.
However, she says that in previous investigations there haven’t been any quality issues with the products tested.
“We want to reassure our consumers that we are confident that all Banana Boat sunscreen products labelled with a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) offer the stated level of SPF if stored and applied as directed on the label,” she said.
You may also like: The most empowering makeup tutorial ever
