In the Northern Hemisphere summer is coming and you will be putting a lot of sunscreen on yourself to avoid sunburn and, of course, skin cancer. However, your holiday beach fun can actually be harmful to sea flora. Scientists at the University of York say that the environmental impact of sunscreen on the world’s coral reefs should be studied more closely.
UV radiation from the sun does cause skin cancer. Simple understanding of it and the popularity of beach culture lead to extensive production and use of skin protection products. And you absolutely should use sunscreen, because skin cancer is no joke. However, we don’t really know what happens when you enter water all covered in these products that contain all kinds of chemicals.
On the other hand, we know that UV-filter chemicals have toxic effects on marine organisms, but we have no idea about concentrations and how our summer fun on the beach actually affects ecosystems. Scientists point out the fact that coral reefs are in decline. They are typically very sensitive to stressors. At least partly climate change and pollution are responsible for that decline, but it could also be stuff we put on our bodies before going to beaches. Also, our products end up in oceans from our showers in places where water treatment facilities are less than great.
Dr Brett Sallach, who is embarking on a new study to understand the impact of sunscreen on the health of coral reefs, said: “Our research aimed to identify what research was out there and what gaps we had in our knowledge. Importantly we needed to understand what areas could be considered priority for future attention in order to understand the impacts of these products, and hopefully prevent any further damage to the environment.”
We are not going to stop using sunscreen – it is absolutely needed for our own health. However, understanding of negative effects of sunscreen on marine environments could help us create new and improved sunscreen products. Policy makers also need this information to describe safety norms and how coral conservation efforts need to be focused.
There are studies already on the effects of sunscreen on marine organisms. However, they mostly focus on freshwater organisms and ecosystems. Now scientists want to focus on coral reefs that are in a dire situation. Hopefully this study will lead to improvements in both sunscreen products and conservation efforts.
Source: University of York