1, 2021, many retailers, resorts and parks are already encouraging visitors to choose reef-safe sunscreens, such as Hanauma Bay State Park. While the new law doesn't officially go into effect until Jan. The law was passed in May 2018 by Hawaii legislators and signed by Gov. Hawaii, for example, prohibits the sale of sunscreen with oxybenzone and octinoxate. Peter Unger/Getty Imagesīefore you head out on a tropical vacation this summer (following safe travel protocols as we muster through the coronavirus pandemic, of course), check to see if your sunny destination has banned sunscreens with certain chemicals. Hawaii became the first state to ban sunscreens with oxybenzone due to concerns about the coral reefs. "Corals can regrow and recover over time, and if we start changing our habits soon then we still have a chance of reversing the damage we've done so far," Ohm says hopefully. If enough people were aware of the damage caused by sunscreen, he says, many could be swayed into buying eco-friendly sunscreen that might cost a little bit more but is perhaps less likely to damage the environment. Ohm says he thinks there's a chance to mitigate the damage by raising awareness about the potential harms of sunscreen and the risks posed to the environment. Coral reefs are already at risk due to rising water temperatures, and getting covered with a cocktail of toxins certainly doesn't help." To be clear, more research is needed to determine how toxic sunscreens and the ingredients in them. "The damage is bad but it could be much worse," Ohm says, "and if we continue dumping sunscreen into the ocean it could threaten coral populations worldwide. Damage to the reefs is happening, whether it's due largely to sunscreens or not, and consumers have an opportunity to protect the reefs while also protecting themselves with adequate sunscreen. However, "more research is needed" isn't a good reason to totally disregard the health of our coral reefs. The duration of studies has been relatively short (a few hours up to a few days), with more information needed about the long-term impacts.It focused on individual chemicals, rather than sunscreens as a whole.It was conducted in laboratory settings, rather than in real environments.The International Coral Reef Initiative released a report in 2018 ( PDF) stating that much of the research to date is limited because: When coral becomes bleached, it is susceptible to viral infections and death. Those chemicals have since been banned for sale and use in Palau. The island nation of Palau released a report in 2017 ( PDF) that says scientists detected harmful levels of 10 chemicals in Jellyfish Lake, a popular tourist attraction for swimming and water sports.Yet another study in 2017 speaks out against oxybenzone as a harmful compound to both humans and coral reefs, but again, uses laboratory data that may or may not reflect what's really happening to the coral reefs.This study was conducted in laboratory settings, which may or may not correlate to real-life settings.
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