That’s why Hawaii became the first state in the US to ban the sale of sunscreen containing the coral-harming chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate in 2018. The reason? The chemicals in your SPF can rinse off and affect the ecosystems where you swim. After all, over the past few years, people everywhere are finally beginning to understand that sunscreen is essential.īut did you know that, if you’re someone who likes to spend a lot of time in and near the water, the type of sunscreen you use is important, too. Whatever the case may be, we assume that sunscreen is part of your beachside beauty routine. We have to actually look at the ingredients to confirm for ourselves.Does your idea of the perfect vacation center around days spent at the beach, sprawled out on an extra-large towel with a good book, only to get up and take a dip every few hours to cool off? Or perhaps you like to take a more active approach, spending the majority of your time on a board, in the surf, or snorkeling below the surface. Unfortunately, like many “buzzwords” we hear a lot today (think, “eco-friendly,” “all-natural,” even “biodegradable”), there isn’t actually any regulation around the term “reef-safe.” So we can’t just look at a sunscreen label that says it’s reef-safe and know for sure. Our refillable sunscreen is made with zinc oxide. Both of these ingredients have been determined to be safest for our ocean life. The two ingredients that are used in reef-safe sunscreens are zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Chemical sunscreens, on the other hand, absorb into your skin and create a chemical barrier by absorbing UV and turning it into heat. Reef-safe, or mineral, sunscreens create a physical barrier on the surface of your skin to protect from UVA and UVB rays. When we get 50% of our oxygen from oceans, I’m not super keen on taking that risk. Oh yeah, and research has found that oxybenzone is actually an endocrine disruptor, especially worrisome for children.Īnd if these issues are affecting coral reefs and our hormone systems, they’re probably affecting more than just corals in the oceans. And globally, we’re washing about 6,000 tons of sunscreen into our coral reefs every year. When corals are exposed to these chemicals, they have the same reaction as they would with rising ocean temperatures. Traditional sunscreens (also known as chemical sunscreens), including the brand names we’re all probably most familiar with, are made with ingredients like oxybenzone and octinoxate. Most commonly, coral bleaching occurs from changes in water temperature (looking at you, climate change), but it also occurs from pollution and, yes, traditional sunscreen. Here’s a really handy graphic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Have you heard of “coral bleaching?” It actually looks a lot like it sounds. What’s the dealio with traditional sunscreens? So, let’s take a look at traditional sunscreens and how they differ from reef-safe sunscreens. I was super intrigued and started to realize just how important it was. Then, one of the girls on that Baja trip wrote her research paper that semester on reef-safe sunscreens and why they matter. The packing list specifically noted “reef-safe sunscreen,” and TBH I’ve always been really, really bad at actually wearing sunscreen in the first place, so I went to REI and I said, “I need some reef-safe sunscreen.” And the guy was like, “Here you go!” And I was like, “Thanks!” Reef-safe sunscreen is something I wasn’t familiar with until my first trip to Baja in 2017. But what exactly is reef-safe sunscreen, how can you be sure a sunscreen is actually reef-safe, and why does it freaking matter, anyway? You’ve probably heard the term “reef-safe,” “coral-safe,” or “ocean-safe” sunscreen, especially in recent years. This post first appeared in our weekly Make Waves Mondays email series on May 24, 2021.
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