![]() I anticipate there will be more to come.Īlthough brands have until 2021 to officially comply and still be able to be sold or even brought into the state of Hawaii, they are wisely starting to react now. Laws have been put into play in Palau and Key West, Florida too. Hawaii is leading the charge to ban these ingredients from their state. Craig Downs, PhD at Haereticus Environmental Laboratory proved that these two chemical sunscreen ingredients are definitely playing a role in the 50% decline we’ve seen in our coral reefs. In 2019, a law was passed in Hawaii to ban two sunscreen active ingredients: oxybenzone and octinoxate. Following the letter of the law only makes it more confusing for well-meaning people trying to find reef-safe (or human-safe) sunscreen. Unfortunately, as my snorkel boat captain reminds us, the law is a step in the right direction but not good enough. They’re slapping a “reef-friendly” label on the tube, because technically you could bring their new formula to Hawaii. But they’re leaving all the other chemical actives - as well as potentially parabens and other health hazards in their formulas. The big brands are indeed removing banned ingredients like oxybenzone and octinoxate. ![]() Now, unfortunately, the big brands are following the letter of the law… but not the spirit of the law. If you saw a tube that said reef-safe, there was almost a 100% chance that it was also safe for humans. Sunscreen used to be pretty easy to decipher. Greenwashing is a term that refers to packaging that intentionally makes a product seem more natural than its ingredients really are. This poor couple had been greenwashed on Amazon and tried to buy “reef-friendly” sunscreen, but it was still full of chemical active ingredients. He said, “It’s not good enough,” and for good reason. Well-intentioned mainlanders had bought some “reef-friendly sunscreen,” but he wouldn’t let them bring it on the boat. I was fortunate to be able to travel to Hawaii just before coronavirus shut the world down, and I wanted to hug our snorkel captain for his tight guidelines about sunscreen. I hope you’ll learn as much from her as I have - on this topic she’s researched exhaustively! Katie and her family have personally tested over 100 natural mineral sunscreens… The following post is written by my friend, Katie Kimball. Learn how to find reef-safe sunscreen - that’s human-safe too! Reef Safe Sunscreens To Shop In Australiaīelow, we’ve collated 10 of the best reef safe sunscreens to buy in Australia.What’s worse than a sunburn? The even greater hazards of endocrine-disrupting, carcinogenic, conventional sunscreen ingredients. If we can minimise any potential incremental buildup of these ingredients as well as consuming mindfully, avoiding unnecessary air travel (hah) and voting for leaders who are actually acknowledging and tackling the grim environmental fate heading towards us, then why not? As a great philosopher once said: por que no los dos. That said, as with nearly all things humans do, there’s an effect on the environment. (Blueberries have parabens in them, FYI.) There’s a lot of sustainability marketing out there that is simply just greenwashing at the end of the day. ![]() It needs to be said that some scientists argue that the scope of coral bleaching due to human’s sunscreen use is overstated-and that the more pressing issue is ocean warming due to carbon emissions. The ingredients that caused coral bleaching in these studies were typically oxybenzone, avobenzone and zinc oxide and titanium dioxide when in nanoparticle form. Where this pertains to your tube of SPF is that some sunscreen ingredients have been found to cause coral bleaching in isolated coral samples. The main causes of this phenomenon are water temperature changes (usually due to that aforementioned climate crisis), ocean acidification, pollutants and too much sun.
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