Firm lobbies to put cap on chemical sunscreens
After her first daughter was born, Nova Covington struggled to find the right skincare products for her child, who was allergic to some of the chemical ingredients. She searched the natural grocery stores for a sunscreen brand that fit her needs, but even there, the majority of products contained chemicals.
So, the concerned mother, along with her husband, Paul Halter, founded Goddess Garden, a Longmont-based company that sells natural sunscreens and other cosmetic products.
Thirteen years after its founding, Goddess Garden has become a leader in the movement to ban sunscreens that contain chemicals thought to harm coral reefs.
“It’s not just about the Goddess Garden brand,” Covington said. “It’s about how we shouldn’t even be using these chemicals.”
Many sunscreens include octinoxate, oxybenzone, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor and butylparaben, according to Goddess Garden’s website. Advocates for the chemical sunscreen bans say these ingredients cause a virus to be activated in the algae that feeds coral using photosynthesis, and as a result, coral bleaching often occurs.
Hawaii passed a bill on May 1 banning sunscreens that contain oxybenzone and octinoxate and Gov. David Ige will sign the bill on July 3. It will go into effect in January 2021.
Craig Downs, a key advocate for the bill, contacted Goddess Gardens and asked for the company’s help in pushing the legislation. Covington also testified in favor of the bill in 2017, according to its website, and Covington created a petition that garnered more than 50,000 signatures asking for the Hawaii governor to sign the bill.
“It was kind of a risky move, but we supported the legislation publicly, and I sent letters to all the senators in Hawaii,” Covington said.
Bayer, the company which produces Coppertone sunscreen, said in a statement to The Denver Post that restricting these chemicals is counter-effective to protecting people from the sun’s harmful rays.
“Eliminating the use of sunscreen ingredients considered to be safe and effective by the (Food and Drug Administration) with a long history of use not only restricts consumer choice, but is
also at odds with skin cancer prevention efforts,” Bayer said in the statement. “Replacing oxybenzone in products above SPF 50 is a complicated task as there are currently limited ingredients available in the U.S. with the same proven effectiveness in sunscreens over SPF 50.”
Goddess Garden acknowledges that higher SPFs require “more chemicals … or more minerals (which can sometimes be whitening in high amounts),” the company says on its website in the FAQ section.
Still, the company says SPF 30 sunscreens protect against 97 percent of UV rays, with SPF 50 sunscreens providing a 1 percent increase in protection.
Bayer also contests the conclusions of research that suggest certain chemical sunscreens are harmful to the ocean.
“Oxybenzone in sunscreen has not been scientifically proven to have an effect on the environment,” the company said in a statement. “We take this issue seriously and along with the industry have supported additional research to confirm that there is no effect.”
Covington said she hopes the Hawaii legislation forces other companies to rethink their ingredients. Although the state is the first to enact legislation, bans have been discussed in Colorado, California and Florida, Covington said.
“I think it’s really important that the general population knows and they can make a healthier choice for families and the oceans, just by the sunscreen choice they make,” she said.