No matter what type of skin, we all need protection from harmful rays that can damage our skin or cause forms of cancer. The sunscreen is made of carbon-containing molecules to absorb light or reflect it away from the skin, but a problem is when these same ingredients are considered harmful to the environment, especially coral reefs. As a result, some manufacturers have adopted marketing “safe reef“ sunscreens, but it’s probably not worth worrying about.
While there are some precautions to be taken with a sunscreen, damage to coral reefs should not be at the top of the list. Here’s what we know about the environmental effects of sunscreen and what a “safe” sunscreen should be.
Don’t change your sunscreen to save the coral reef
The sunscreen protects our skin from two types of harmful sun rays: UVB and UVA rays. UVB rays are what cause redness and burns on the skin, while UVA rays are known to cause skin cancer like melanoma. There are also two forms of sunscreen: physical and chemical. Skin cancer Foundation gives a clear definition of the two.
Physical (mineral) The ingredients in sunscreen (including the minerals titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) block and spread the rays before they penetrate the skin.
Chemical Sunscreen ingredients (such as avobenzone and octisalate) absorb ultraviolet rays before they can cause damage to the skin.
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On a 2016 Study, the chemical form of the sunscreen was considered to be harmful to coral reefs and contributed to the issue of “coral bleaching, “But one most recent study they did not find “quantifiable levels” of the harmful chemical on the surface of seawater or on the coral itself. PhD in Chemistry and Science Content Creator Dr. Michelle Wong is an expert on the subject and alleviates any concerns about the level of destruction that sunscreen is causing on coral reefs.
“It is always possible for sunscreen to have an effect on coral reefs, but the evidence so far points out that sunscreen does not have a big impact,” explains Wong. “The ocean is huge, so any sunscreen that gets into it is diluted very quickly.”
The real problem lies in the mass production of things like plastics, in addition to agriculture and the pollutants that contribute to climate change. Wong points out that most companies that include natural ingredients “are very energy intensive”. When you think you are solving a problem, you are creating another.
Why you should use physical sunscreen
Sunscreen does not travel through the water in sufficient quantities to contribute to bleaching or damage to coral reefs. However, if you are swimming right on top of a coral reef on your next diving excursion, Dr. Wong recommends that it is “better to avoid the ingredients that have had the greatest impact in laboratory studies, namely oxybenzone and octinoxate ”.
If you want to protect yourself and do a little part for 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 exactly “natural”, but they are not known to cause bleaching of coral reefs.
“Many of the sunscreens marketed as ‘reef safe’ have bad textures and cause white spots on the skin, which means that people are less likely to use them and end up expiring on the shelf, which is not good for the environment ”Says Dr. Wong. This does not mean throwing out all of your sunscreens and running out to buy new tubes, of course, but the next time you run out of sunscreen, consider avoiding oxybenzone and octinoxate.