Stay out of the midday sun and cover up, of course, but especially don’t use chemical sunscreens.
By Ted Bohlen, Lisa Bishop, Cindi Punihaole
Ted Bohlen leads the Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition and is a former deputy attorney general for Hawaii.
Lisa Bishop is president of NGO Friends of Hanauma Bay.
Cindi Punihaole is the director of The Kohala Center’s Kahaluu Bay Education Center and received the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce Pualu Award for outstanding work in environmental awareness.
Sunscreens have been much in the news recently. Numerous scientific studies have shown that some sunscreens are harmful to corals, other marine species, and even human health.
In response, in 2018 Hawaii passed the world’s first law banning sale of two sunscreen active ingredients, oxybenzone and octinoxate. This year, Maui and Hawaii counties have also banned sales of sunscreens containing 12 other active ingredients in what are called “chemical sunscreens,” derived from petroleum chemicals.
Some dermatologists speculate that banning chemical sunscreens will lead to less sunscreen use and more skin cancers. But, there are no data proving that chemical sunscreens do anything other than stop sunburn, which has relatively nothing to do with skin cancers — squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, or melanoma.
What should we do to avoid skin cancer without harming marine species?
The answer is actually pretty clear: you should limit your skin’s exposure to the midday sun. If you are going to be in the sun, wear a hat and covering clothing.
Sunscreen should not be your only protection, but if you are going to be in the sun without covering clothing, you should at least wear a sunscreen that has an active ingredient of 20-25% zinc oxide, without tiny “nano” particles. (There are also blends of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.)
These are called “mineral sunscreens.” They stay on your skin surface, whereas chemical sunscreens permeate into the blood and tissue. Mineral sunscreens absorb much of the ultraviolet radiation that penetrates deep into the skin and causes cell damage and even skin cancer.
The only sunscreen active that has any science demonstrating that it might significantly reduce squamous cell carcinoma and/or other skin cancers is zinc oxide (and possibly blended with titanium dioxide). These two mineral actives are the only ones which the federal Food and Drug Administration says are safe and effective for human use based on current information.
In contrast to these mineral sunscreens, studies show that chemical sunscreens can harm both human health and marine species. There are three main problems with chemical sunscreens:
Regarding human health, the assumption that chemical sunscreens prevent skin cancers is all based on subjective theory, not scientific facts. The World Health Organization published in 2000 that increasing your exposure to ultraviolet radiation (which is what sunscreens do if you stay longer because of sunburn protection) increases your risk for skin cancer — period! Skin cancer deaths have increased by 54% in the US since 1975 (when we started promoting sunscreen use), with about 450,000 American skin cancer deaths since then!
There are at least 400 scientific papers that have been published demonstrating that most — if not all — of these chemical sunscreen actives are endocrine disruptors and can have developmental and reproductive toxicological effects not only to aquatic life, but also humans.
Additionally, the FDA has told industry that they will need to conduct developmental and reproductive toxicological, carcinogenicity, and other toxicology studies, in addition to other studies, to demonstrate that these chemicals do not cause cancer or damage our children. Industry has not done such testing to show its products are safe during the past fifty years that it has sold these products.
Recently a panel of the National Academy of Sciences, with a majority of members closely allied to the personal care products industry, called for additional study by the EPA. This is plainly a delaying tactic, similar to what the tobacco and fossil fuel industries have used to forestall regulation of their harmful products. Testing for either drug and cosmetic product safety, or impact on marine species, is not the EPA’s responsibility.
As noted, the agency charged with protecting human health from harmful products, the FDA, recognizes as safe and effective only two active ingredients, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, not EPA, has primary jurisdiction over marine species. NOAA has concluded that sunscreens harm green algae, coral, sea urchins, mussels, fish and dolphins.
(Search “NOAA and Sunscreens” or use this link to go to NOAA’s infographic https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen-corals.html.)
Given all these problems with chemical sunscreens, it is appropriate that the state of Hawaii has banned the sale of two of them and now Maui and Hawaii counties have banned the sale of all non-mineral (chemical) sunscreens. Chemical sunscreens should be banned as a precaution unless and until the industry shows it has developed products that are safe and effective for both human health and marine species.
Editor’s note: Toxicologist Joseph DiNardo, Denis Dudley, an M.D. in maternal fetal medicine/reproductive endocrinology, and Sharyn Laughlin, an M.D. in photobiology/dermatology, contributed to this Community Voice.
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Ted Bohlen leads the Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition and is a former deputy attorney general for Hawaii.
Lisa Bishop is president of NGO Friends of Hanauma Bay.
Cindi Punihaole is the director of The Kohala Center’s Kahaluu Bay Education Center and received the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce Pualu Award for outstanding work in environmental awareness.
All sunscreen is bad....not only chemical, but mineral as well. Don't use any of them. If can, avoid direct mid-day sunlight. If no can, cover up. It's simple really.
There is an issue of scale here. Suspected negative health effects from chemical sunscreens? On a list of 100 health issues to worry about, this would not crack the list. Impacts on reefs? First, many, many people use sunscreens and they donât get into the ocean. But if all the issues impacting our nearshore environments⦠warming seas, rising sea levels, rising acidity, sewage effluents, over-fishing of many species ( particularly parrotfish), unsustainable numbers of tourists (and their feet on the reefs)â¦. I just canât get worried about chemical sunscreens.
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