Use This Type of Sunscreen Instead of “reef Safe”.
Regardless of our skin type, we all need protection from harmful rays that can damage our skin or cause cancer . Sunscreen is made up of carbon-based molecules that either absorb light or reflect it off the skin, but one problem is that the same ingredients are considered harmful to the environment, especially to coral reefs. As a result, some manufacturers have started selling ” reef safe ” sunscreens, but it’s probably not worth it.
While there are some precautions to take when using sunscreen, damage to coral reefs should not be among the first. Here’s what we know about the environmental impact of sunscreen and what a “safe” sunscreen should be.
Don’t change sunscreen to save the coral reef
Sunscreen protects our skin from two types of harmful sun rays: UVB and UVA. UVB rays cause skin redness and burns, while UVA rays are known to cause skin cancers such as melanoma. There are also two forms of sunscreen: physical and chemical. The Skin Cancer Foundation clearly defines these two.
The physical (mineral) ingredients in sunscreen (including the minerals titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) block and scatter rays before they penetrate your skin.
Chemical sunscreen ingredients (like avobenzone and octisalate) absorb UV rays before they can damage your skin.
A 2016 study found that the chemical form of sunscreen is harmful to coral reefs and exacerbates the problem of ” coral bleaching, ” but a more recent study found “no quantitative levels” of the harmful chemical on the surface of seawater or in water. the coral itself. Dr. Michelle Wong, PhD in Chemistry and Science Content Creator, is an expert in the field and relieves any concerns about the level of damage sunscreen is doing to coral reefs.
“It is always possible that sunscreen has an effect on coral reefs, but the evidence to date indicates that sunscreen does not have much of an effect,” explains Wong. “The ocean is huge, so any sunscreen that gets into it dissolves very quickly.”
The real problem lies in the mass production of things like plastics, over-farming and pollutants that contribute to climate change. Wong notes that most companies that use natural ingredients are “very energy intensive to produce.” When you think you are solving one problem, it creates another.
Why you should use a physical sunscreen
Sunscreen does not pass through the water in sufficient quantities to cause bleaching or damage to coral reefs. However, if you find yourself swimming right on a coral reef on your next scuba diving excursion, Dr. Wong recommends “avoiding ingredients that have had a greater impact in laboratory research, namely oxybenzone and octinoxate.”
If you want to protect yourself and make a small contribution to the environment, choose a physical sunscreen. Physical sunscreens use the chemicals titanium dioxide or zinc oxide to create a barrier between your skin and UVA or UVB rays; they are not entirely “natural” but are not known to cause bleaching in coral reefs.
“Many sunscreens that are marketed as ‘reef safe’ have poor texture and cause white patches on the skin, which means people are less likely to use them and end up expiring on the shelf, which is harmful to the environment says Dr. Wong. This does not mean, of course, that you have to throw out all the sunscreen and go shopping for new tubes, but the next time you run out of sunscreen, consider avoiding oxybenzone and octinoxate.