For years, beach-goers and adventurers in europe have wielded 21st-century shields against the sun. Meanwhile, thanks to the slow regulatory machinery of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), sun-loving Americans have been stuck squarely in the 20th.

Unlike most countries, which classify sunscreens as cosmetics, the U.S. categorizes the active ingredients in sunscreens as drugs and subjects them to the FDA's drug approval process. That's a long slog, especially because the agency is several years overdue in establishing comprehensive guidelines for evaluating sun protection. Any sunscreen ingredient submitted for approval -- such as Mexoryl, a highly effective product available in Europe -- ends up in regulatory limbo.

But new technology is making its way to the market. Last December Florida-based Ivax rolled out Heliocare, an oral supplement long available in a different form in Europe. Extracted from a Honduran fern, the orange capsules, used daily together with a topical sunscreen, ward off long-term damage, not just sunburn.

Neutrogena's new line of avobenzone-based lotions, Helioplex, meanwhile, is a homegrown competitor to Europe's best. The lotions withstand five hours of sunlight; normally avobenzone loses potency after an hour. And by tweaking an approved ingredient, the formulas don't require new review. "I test products all the time," says Dr. Darrell Rigel, professor of dermatology at NYU medical center, who last year conducted a study (financed by Neutrogena) of 30 golfers and got European-quality results. "This might be the best I've tested."

People need sunscreen more than ever. Perhaps it's coincidence, but in the U.S., with its slow regulatory approval process, skin cancer is on the rise. For men over 50 it's the most common of all malignancies. Yet many sunscreen makers have decided that the hassles of the U.S. market -- and the FDA -- aren't worth it. When drug companies spend millions vetting a product like Viagra, they can expect to earn their investment back. That's not the case with sunscreens, which bring in just $640 million a year, a drop in the bucket of $150 billion annual pharmaceutical sales. Thus, the FDA has approved only one new ingredient for use in sunscreen -- avobenzone -- since 1978. In that time the European Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Perfumery Association has approved more than a dozen.

Like Neutrogena's Helioplex, the agents involved in European sunscreen -- Mexoryl chief among them -- are highly photostable. And they're better than American products at thwarting UVA radiation, now considered to be more cancerous and prevalent than the better-known, sunburn-causing UVB rays. (A consumer lawsuit filed in March accuses U.S. manufacturers of overinflating protection claims.)

But you don't have to lose out. There's an American gray market in unapproved sunscreens. And federal authorities haven't prosecuted the handful of dermatologists and pharmacies that sell them to the public. But prices can be steep, especially now that the FDA has begun to crack down on the brisk eBay trade in the stuff, driving ordinarily law-abiding citizens deeper into the shadows -- and their wallets -- to get what they need.