In Brief
Sunscreen washes off your body when you swim and shower and enters the marine environment.
Common chemical sunscreen ingredients, such as oxybenzone and octinoxate, can kill coral and damage coral reefs.
Badger's reef safe sunscreens never use any of these harmful ingredients and we were one of the first to receive the Protect Land & Sea Certification.
• "USVI Sunscreen Ban Takes Effect" - Travel Agent 2020
• "Palau is first country to ban 'reef toxic' sunscreen" - BBC 2020
• "Key West Bans Sunscreen Containing Chemicals Believed to Harm Coral Reefs" - New York Times 2019
• "Most Sunscreens Can Harm Coral Reefs" - New York Times 2018
• "Hawaii to Ban Sale of Sunscreen Containing Chemicals Damaging to Coral Reefs" - Fox News 2018
• Toxicopathological Effects of the Sunscreen UV Filter, Oxybenzone (Benzophenone-3), on Coral Planulae and Cultured Primary Cells and Its Environmental Contamination in Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. Downs C.A. et al. February 2016
•Sunscreens Cause Coral Bleaching by Promoting Viral Infections. Environmental Health Perspectives. Danovaro R, et al. April 2008
Between 6000 and 14,000 tons of sunscreen washes off swimmers, scuba divers, and snorkelers into coral reef environments each year. Even more sunscreen pollution can reach coastal areas via waste water discharges. Up to 10% of the world's coral reefs may be threatened by certain chemicals found in most sunscreens.
Four common sunscreen ingredients were shown to kill or bleach coral at extremely low concentrations (as low as one drop in 6.5 Olympic sized swimming pools).
The Haereticus Environmental Laboratory researches the effects of sunscreens and other personal care ingredients on coral reefs and on other ecosystems and wildlife. Their HEL LIST is a list of personal care and sunscreen ingredients that are known environmental pollutants and threaten ecosystem health. This list includes:
In 2020 the Haereticus Environmental Laboratory tested two Badger sunscreens and they were free of any of these ingredients earning us one of the very first Protect Land & Sea Certifications! Check out our Protect Land & Sea Certified sunscreen in a tin!
Global warming, pollution, and other human activities pose additional and significant threats to the survival of coral reefs. However, the results of these sunscreen studies should be taken seriously and if you plan to swim, scuba dive, or snorkel near coral reefs you should use a coral reef friendly or reef safe sunscreen. How can you tell if a sunscreen is safe for coral reefs?