Hawaii to ban certain sunscreens harmful to coral reefs

[kmarks]

Just because the oceans are huge doesn't mean people don't have an impact on their immediate vicinity. The volume of the Earth's atmosphere is enormous and can certainly cope with an infusion of a few pounds of cyanide gas with no ill effects, but if that cyanide is sprayed directly into your face, it's not going to end well for you. And that's what's happening with swimmers, divers, and surfers wearing reef killing sunscreens while playing directly on the reef.

I just hope this ban gives an incentive for companies to develop reef safe, effective sunscreens that cost less than their weight in gold. I think a lot of people avoid them because they are hard to find and outrageously expensive (the latter probably informs the former).

 

[N518LF]

My wife and I don't use chemical layden sunscreen, that stuff causes cancer! Btw, coconut oil is a natural spf4 and is actually good for you and your skin.

 

[dmaziuk]

If they ban urine, I'll have to find another sport!

Urine: no. Urine full of prescription medications: you may have something there. I hear the charitable guesstimate is 10% of a pill you take gets into your system and does its job; the other 90% is flushed out with waste. Waste treatment plants apparently have never been intended to remove that kind of contamination, so... how much prozac there is in our tap water is anybody's guess at this point.

 

[Saniflush]

Mrs Flush and I were talking about this over the weekend and she made the comment that "there are so many things that need to be done to protect the reefs".
She's right of course but I have to believe that it is more about raising awareness than anything. Empowering most everyone who visit with the knowledge that it’s bad may lead them to ask “what else is bad?”.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The oceans are very big places (see a map of the Pacific)...and although humans wearing minute amounts of lotion coating their skin (to save them from skin cancers) may have some small impact...I believe nature can probably handle it...Our oceans have bigger issues.

If the sunscreen chemicals were evenly distributed throughout the ocean that would be a valid observation ... unfortunately the chemicals are concentrated in a small, local area where the divers and swimmers are ... which is usually around shallow coral reefs that die because of their exposure to our chemicals.

That you would describe it as a "small impact" that "nature can probably handle" suggests that you haven't actually seen the damage, which is both substantial and incontrovertible. These chemicals are, quite literally, killing the very reason why most people choose to dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[peterak]

Btw, coconut oil is a natural spf4 and is actually good for you and your skin.

Maybe. Or Maybe not:

Why you should not use Coconut Oil as a Sunscreen - Formula Botanica

A lot of misinformation out there; often hard to tell which is which.

 

[Asteve]

So when are they going to ban flight to and from Hawaii just reading that international travel is the cause of 7% of carbon footprint. Your international vacation is a whole lot worse for the planet than we thought But now I can feel good about environment because I am doing/using....... It seem to me until we are willing to talk about population control, the rest is about selling something.

 

[Compressor]

Mahalo my hawaiian friends.