Sunscreen badly affects coral reefs: Research

A research paper published in the Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology has unveiled that sunscreen is proving quite harmful for earth's coral reefs, which are already facing threats.

The researchers said the sunscreen has an ingredient known as ozybenzone that has quite a negative effect on coral reef systems. This chemical sucks out the nutrients from coral and in return turns the corals white. The chemical has also been affecting coral's DNA.

To conduct the study, the researchers have focused on the coral reef contamination in the US Virgin Islands of Hawaii. As per the researchers, the tourist spots that attract most visitors are the ones having the highest concentration of oxybenzone.

After knowing such harmful effects of oxybenzone, the researchers have termed it as "an emerging contaminant of concern in marine environments-produced by swimmers and municipal, residential, and boat/ship wastewater discharges".

The study, released Tuesday, was conducted in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Hawaii several years after a chance encounter between a group of researchers on one of the Caribbean beaches, Trunk Bay, and a vendor waiting for the day’s invasion of tourists. Just wait to see what they’d leave behind, he told the scientists – “a long oil slick.”

Research for the new study was conducted only on the two islands. But across the world each year, up to 14,000 tons of sunscreen lotions are discharged into coral reef, and much of it “contains between 1 and 10 percent oxybenzone,” the authors said.

The chemical is so dangerous that it not only causes damage to adult coral's DNA, but also deforms the DNA in larval stage. Oxybenzone, which is so harmful for corals, is found in many things used by humans, including sunscreen lotion, nail polish, lotions and lipstick.

As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 97% of Americans have oxybenzone in their bodies. The FDA has warned that parents should not use products that contain oxybenzone on children aged below two.

In a press release, researchers urge beachgoers to consider wearing rash guards instead of sunscreen. "Any small effort to reduce oxybenzone pollution could mean that a coral reef survives a long, hot summer, or that a degraded area recovers,” lead researcher Craig Downs says in the release.

Sunscreen has become a commonplace product, in part because of public health targets aimed at reducing skin cancer. But this study importantly scrutinizes the environmental fate of one of the many products we use on a daily basis and will hopefully make manufacturers and the general public think a little bit harder about the products they rely on every day.

The study has been published Tuesday in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.

In market, one can get sunscreens that do not contain oxybenzone. The National Park Service has suggested people visiting reefs to use natural mineral ingredients.