Green Sun Cream
Posted by Jackie Hewett on Wed 20th February 2008 at 01:39 AM, Filed in Eco Friendly
Do you use ecologically friendly sun creams and lotions? Perhaps you weren’t even aware of the potential issue – I wasn’t before reading an article in the 3rd February edition of the Sunday Times.
It is not to do with tap water in which you wash off sun creams that could be polluting the water supply and getting into the soil or crops, but in fact it’s to do with the sea.
Bleached Coral
An Italian university (Marche Polytechnic University) has found that four chemicals (benzophene, a paraben preservative, cinnamate and a camfor derivative) that are used as preservatives and UV filters are awakening dormant viruses in algae that live inside reef building corals. They cause the virus to ‘explode’ (rampantly reproduce and become active) and spread into the surrounding water which bleaches coral and ultimately kills it. The researchers estimate that some 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen annually wash of swimmers into the sea threatening up to 10% of coral reefs.
This map shows the areas where coral is believed to be affected by the virus.
So – what can you do about it? I am trying to identify products that do not contain these chemicals (if any readers have such a list I would be grateful if you could post them as comments to this article). Meanwhile the best we can all do is to shower before going into the sea if you have used sun creams and wear a tee-shirt to protect your shoulders instead of using waterproof sun creams.
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