Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Ban sought on sunscreen chemicals
That greasy lotion we slather onto ourselves at the beach protects us from the sun, but it can harm coral reefs.
Two key ingredients of many sunscreens should be banned because they can cause an often-fatal coral condition called bleaching, according to a petition filed last week by a U.S. environmental group.
Such a ban would affect many wellknown brands, although there are many sunscreens that don’t contain either ingredient. Both kinds are readily available at
stores and online.
One or both of the chemicals can be found in about 70 percent of sunscreens and nearly all of the sunscreens with a SPF (sun protection factor) higher than 50.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition Wednesday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban oxybenzone and octinoxate, both active ingredients of many brands of sunscreen, saying there are perfectly good alternatives currently in use that don’t hurt coral reefs.
“Oxybenzone is particularly toxic to corals at concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion — the equivalent of three drops in an Olympic-size swimming pool may be enough to severely damage or kill coral,” states the petition. “Beach-goers and vacationers, eager to snorkel and marvel at coral reefs, may be inadvertently killing the very corals they are observing as the sunscreen they applied to their skin washes off into the ocean.”
The proposal carries particular significance for South Florida, the destination of millions of sunbathers and the location of the only coral barrier reef in the continental United States.
In Hawaii, the other U.S. state with extensive reefs, the state assembly voted May 1 to ban sunscreens containing the two chemicals.
The South Florida reef tract runs from the Florida Keys through Martin County, supporting a rich diversity of sea creatures as well as tourist-based businesses in fishing, diving and snorkeling.
The reefs have been declining for years, suffering from extensive bleaching, in which the corals expel the algae that provides them with color and nutrition, making themselves more vulnerable to disease. Scientists blame the bleaching mainly on global warming.
Mike Tringale, vice president for communications of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, an industry trade group, said proposals to ban them are based on a “limited number of flawed studies conducted in a lab setting under artificial conditions — not actual marine environments.”
“Proponents of sunscreen bans avoid overwhelming evidence from experts around the world that prove the real causes of coral decline: global warming, agricultural runoff, sewage and pollution and overfishing,” he said in a written statement.
“Banning oxybenzone and octinoxate would drastically and unnecessarily reduce consumer access to safe and effective sunscreen products and would create an unnecessary public health risk especially for parents and children who rely on these products for protection.”
The South Florida reefs have also been suffering from a mysterious disease, sometimes called white plague or white blotch, that kills corals, leaving behind lifeless white skeletons.
Emily Jeffers, attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, acknowledged the other threats to reefs but said one of the easiest things we can do to help them is to switch sunscreens.
“It’s something we can do right now,” she said. “We can stop using these sunscreens that harm corals, so let’s do it. A lot of the other threats that corals are facing are big problems — ocean warming, ocean acidification, over fishing. This is an easy step for people to take right now. We don’t need to use these sunscreens that put chemicals in the water that kill corals.”