How to Pick a Sunscreen That’s Safe for Coral Reefs and Aquatic Life

Hopefully, before you head to the beach, you’ve already looked for some safe sunscreens for your body. But if you’re not reading labels, and if you don’t understand what the ingredients on those labels are, studies show the product you’re lathering on your skin could actually pose a grave threat to the ocean environment. These sunscreens are especially not safe for coral reefs.

The world’s most popular reefs are at risk because of a common chemical found in all types of sunscreen: Oxybenzone. [1]

Oxybenzon – Why Sunscreen is NOT Safe for Coral Reefs, Aquatic Life

According to a study published in 2015, oxybenzone poisons coral by contributing to bleaching, has a similar effect on DNA to gasoline, and causes young corals to become fatally deformed because the chemical disrupts reproduction and growth.

Craig Downs, one of the study’s authors, explained:

“It causes weird deformities in soft tissue and also causes the coral larvae to encase itself in its own skeleton, in its own coffin.”

A dose of oxybenzone the size of a drop in 6.5 Olympic swimming pools is enough to damage coral reefs.

Downs said:

“Oxybenzone can cause an adverse effect in coral at 62 parts per trillion, that is equivalent to one drop of water in six and a half Olympic size swimming pools, so you don’t need a lot to cause a lot of damage.” [2]

In fact, scientists have discovered that many beaches popular with tourists have dead and sterile reefs, compared to beaches with little human traffic, which are healthy. [1]

It is believed that up to 14,000 tons of sunscreen is deposited on coral reefs each year. [2]

Hawaii is contemplating banning oxybenzone-containing sunscreens on the islands for this reason. Sunscreen isn’t safe for coral reefs!

Other sea life is imperiled by oxybenzone, as well. Downs’ team found the chemical has toxic effects on fish larvae and embryos. [1]

How to Ensure You’re Buying Sunscreen Safe for Coral Reefs

Some sunscreen manufacturers have started producing and marketing sunscreens as “reef friendly,” but there’s no way to know for sure what you’re getting. Scientists warn that, like the “natural” and “healthy” labels on food, there is little to no regulation over such claims.

Read: Eco Artists Build Interactive Dive Site That Doubles as Artificial Coral Reef

So here are a few tips for picking a sunscreen that is, indeed, reef-friendly.

Read Labels

Look for sunscreens containing the “Protect Land + Sea” Certification Seal. This means the product has been laboratory-tested using analytical-forensic techniques to verify that it is free of the following chemicals:

• Any form of microplastic sphere or beads.


• Any nanoparticles like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.


• Oxybenzone


• Octinoxate


• 4-methylbenzylidene camphor


• Octocrylene


• Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA)


• Methyl Paraben


• Ethyl Paraben


• Propyl Paraben


• Butyl Paraben


• Benzyl Paraben


• Triclosan [3]

While sunscreens containing ONLY zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are considered reef-friendly, when these ingredients are uncoated and nano-size (less than 35 nanometers in diameter), they can enter the cells of invertebrates and cause oxidative stress in sunlight. Downs explains that “This blows up the cells so they die.” [4] [5]

Buy Sunscreens with the Simplest Formulas

According to Downs, even oils added to sunscreens, such as eucalyptus and lavender, can harm invertebrates. Industrial insecticides can contaminate beeswax, that, when emulsified in beauty products, can release these chemicals on your skin and in the water. This is why it’s so important to buy organic sunscreen.

Don’t Buy Aerosols

Aerosol sunscreens are worse for reefs than other types because it travels and leaves residue in the sand. Waves wash the sand and the residual ocean spray into the oceans. [2]

When researchers sprayed a small piece of coral from Trunk Bay in the U.S. Virgin Islands with one of the top aerosol brands, the coral lost all its algae, and turned white and bleached within 96 hours.

John Burns, PhD and coral biologist, who has worked on coral health and disease for nearly a decade, said:

“They actually have a basic immune system that is a lot like humans, they react when they are being stressed out. When they’re white, their stressed, it’s a lot like us, when we’re sick, we’re pale and we’re not as healthy, and that’s what’s happening to the coral.”

Now that we know that most sunscreens aren’t safe for coral reefs or ourselves, let’s make it a goal to explore other, safer options for protection this summer.

Sources:

[1] The Guardian

[2] BigIslandNow.com

[3] Haereticus Environmental Laboratory

[4] The Inertia

[5] Vogue

National Park Service

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Creepy and Bizarre: Pranksters Set-Up to Assassinate Kim Jong Un’s Half Brother with “Aerosol Spray”

This one is downright eerie – and it sounds like a plot hatched by Jack Nicholson’s Joker, releasing deadly gases disguised inside of benign household products. As conspiratorial as it gets.

While pranksters were behind a slew of fake phone calls to Congressman, including a set-up with Sen. John McCain from two Russians posing as the Ukrainian PM, a more serious prank has been attributed to the circumstances that lead to the mysterious death of Kim Jung Un’s half brothers – who was killed a few days ago in Malasia.

Speculatively, Kim Jong Nam may have been targeted by his own estranged half brother, though he is not a rival to Kim Jung Un’s power, as subtle and bizarre reasons have often been attributed to political killings in North Korea. On the other hand, it may have been foul play from a criminal organization or CIA plot.

At any rate, the creepiest part of this eerie murder was that the two young women who responsible for his death after spraying aerosol cans that released toxic fumes inhaled by Kim Jong Nam immediately before his death – they reportedly believed they were taking part in an viral video prank, and had no idea was they were really part of.

via Heat Street:

Following the news that Kim Jong Un’s estranged brother, Kim Jong Nam, was assassinated in Malaysia by two women using an aerosol spray, new details have emerged about the alleged assassins and their motives. The two women told police they believed they were playing roles in a viral video prank, which they hired to participate in for $100 each.

Heat Street revealed Thursday that one of the alleged assailants identified herself to Malaysian authorities as a Vietnamese Internet personality with a YouTube channel. On Friday, police told The Star newspaper (via The Australian) that new CCTV footage taken the day before the assassination showed a group of the same six people implicated in murder wandering around Kuala Lumpur International Airport. It may be evidence of a “dress rehearsal” for the assassination of Jong Nam, who was set to travel to his home in Macau the next day.

[…]

Siti Aisyah told police that she was approached in a night club in Kuala Lumpur, where she works, and offered $100 to take part in the prank. Like Doan, the Indonesian says she had no knowledge that she was taking part in an assassination and was not aware of who Kim Jong Nam was.

It took only five seconds of inhaling the toxic substance for Jong Nam’s fate to be sealed. He died en route to the hospital after he sought help from the airport clinic.

While other accounts cast more presumptive suspicion on these two women, and the other four people they were seen with the day before, the idea that they were unwitting vectors of death is unsettling to say the least.

What could be more scarring and traumatic than finding out you played a role in causing someone’s death while taking part in a scheme of which you were not aware.

Another account indicates that these women may have instead injected needles into him – which would indeed color the story quite differently, if true:

Media reports tell of the ‘casino loving half brother’ walking through the airport in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur Monday morning, when the two women plunged ‘poison needles’ into his body. (source)

Police are still investigating, obviously, and it remains to be seen whether or not their story checks out, and Malaysian officials are so far refusing to the return the body to North Korea unless the Kim family submits a DNA sample to match to the body.

There is little doubt that a rogue leader with as much petty power and cartoonish ruthlessness as Kim Jung Un could get to any one of his internal rivals in hundreds of ways. The traditional style of rule in North Korea has long been unpredictable, sudden assassinations designed to discourage subterfuge, and breed suspicion to keep up appearances and stay in line at all costs.

But given that they have insisted that they were merely involved in making YouTube prank vids, it seems that their prank suffered some deadly blowback.

As Jack Nicholson made clear in the 1989 Batman film, it would be far too easy to get to someone with a disguised and seemingly harmless object.

As for why Kim Jong Nam was killed, it seems most likely that it is accounted for by classic sibling rivalry and palace intrigue, despite the fact that Nam was living in exile and seemingly unlikely to challenge his brother’s power.

According to the Economist:

Since the 30-something Kim Jong Un came to power, he has consolidated power by executing about 140 senior officials, most notably his uncle and security chief, Jang Song Thaek. Yet exile had typically been the fate of members of the Kim family who had fallen out of favour. Kim Jong Il’s half-brother, Kim Pyong Il, was sent abroad on never-ending diplomatic service, for instance.Some say Jong Nam was sidelined by Jong Un’s mother and her family … As a political irrelevance, [Nam] had seemed likely to survive Jong Un’s purges.

Wild rumours had circulated in the South Korean press that Jong Nam had conspired against his brother with Jang. Jong Nam had been close to Jang, who was his escort during his school days in Switzerland. But Michael Madden, who runs “North Korea Leadership Watch”, a blog, says tales of fraternal hostility have been overdone.

It is possible that Jong Nam was involved in financial dealings that Jong Un wanted to wind up. Some suspect he was laundering money through Macau’s casinos. Mr Madden says he had ties with Office 39, a department that seeks foreign income for the Kim regime through illicit means. More likely, however, is that Jong Nam simply irritated his half-brother by criticising him. Mr Gomi quoted him as saying Jong Un would “not last” as leader.

If North Korea’s cut throat politics is this sophisticated and deadly, how can we be surprised at the levels that the CIA and deep state have gone to in countering President Trump’s seat of power; the orchestrated coup that ousted Gen. Flynn is just the icing on the cake so far. There are hundreds of micro-coups going on as they battle for dominance, and chances are, we haven’t seen anything yet.

There is perhaps nothing that some of these power hungry types wouldn’t stoop to.

With a slew of fake news items that are designed to preempt, undermine or creep out world leaders and populations alike, and a dirty tricks across the board, it is high season for political sabotage, stunts, moves and counter moves.

Read more:

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