Ben sent me an article about the connection between coral bleaching and sunscreen. It’s scary stuff. Here’s another thing you need to pay attention to when you’re shopping for sunscreen.

Sunscreen is absolutely important. Even when it’s cloudy out, it’s important to protect exposed skin if you’re going to be outside (advice I wish I’d heeded this weekend when I was gardening — I was only going to be outside for 20 minutes or so!).  But what’s in your sunscreen is also a top concern.

According to the AFP article:

“Researchers led by Roberto Danovaro at the University of Pisa in Italy added controlled amounts of three brands of sunscreen to seawater surrounding coral reefs in Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand and Egypt.

Even small doses provoked large discharges of coral mucous — a clear sign of environmental stress — within 18 to 48 hours. Within 96 hours complete bleaching of corals had occurred.

Virus levels in seawater surrounding coral branches increased to 15 times the level found in control samples, suggesting that sunscreens might stimulate latent viral infections, the study found.”

I did a little more poking around. Treehugger says:

“According to ES&T’s Robert Weinhold, 4 ingredients commonly found in sunscreens that tend to wash off into the water - a paraben preservative, cinnamate, benzophenone and a camphor derivative (the last 3 are UV filters) - cause bleaching by killing zooxanthellae, the algae that form a symbiotic relationship with corals - even at very low levels.”

I wish the article gave the name of the camphor derivative as it might show up on a label. From the information I have, I believe the Aubrey Organics Sunscreen I just purchased is in the clear, but I’m not 100% sure. As if it weren’t confusing enough, right?  At least we have a starting point.

Thanks, Ben!