Holland & Barrett becomes the first major UK retailer to ban chemical sunscreen

There’s been a lot of talk over the last few years on the effects of sunscreen on our oceans, reports Women’s Health magazine. A 2008 European study found that approximately 14,000 tons of sunscreen end up in our oceans every year, while a 2015 study in the journal Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology led to the ban of oxybenzone (a popular sunscreen ingredient) in many countries, after it was found to be directly linked to coral bleaching, the top cause of coral death worldwide.

And now Holland & Barrett are taking things one step further – by becoming the first major retailer in the UK to ban all chemical sunscreens from their stores, making the retailer’s entire suncare range ‘reef safe’. What does this mean? Essentially, it ensures that all products containing ocean-damaging ingredients (including oxybenzone and octinoxate) will now be banned from all Holland & Barrett stores nationwide, and online.

Why have we been concerned over the environmental impact of sunscreens?

Associate Professor Nial Wheate of University of Sydney explains that after we apply sunscreen, the active ingredients can leach from our skin into the water. When we shower after swimming, soaps and detergents can further strip the these sunscreen chemicals off and send them into our waste water systems. They pass through treatment facilities, which cannot effectively remove them, and end up in rivers and oceans.

Four years ago, the Pacific island nation of Palau made world headlines by announcing plans to ban all sunscreens that contain specific synthetic active ingredients due to concern over the risk they posed to corals. Similar bans have been announced by Hawaii, as well a number of other popular tourist areas in the Americas and Caribbean. These bans are based on independent scientific studies and commissioned reports which have found contamination from specific active ingredients in sunscreen in the water at beaches, rivers and lakes.

Great Barrier Reef authority confirms unprecedented sixth mass coral bleaching event

The Great Barrier Reef has been hit with a sixth mass coral bleaching event, the marine park’s authority has confirmed and the Guardian reported, with aerial surveys showing almost no reefs across a 1,200km stretch escaping the heat.

The confirmation from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) marks an alarming milestone for the ocean icon, with 2022 going down as the first time mass bleaching has happened in a cooler La Niña year which scientists had hoped would be a period of recovery for corals.

Government scientists said the confirmation showed the urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions that were driving the repeated mass bleachings.

Great Barrier Reef bleaching and sunscreen

Professor Wheate’s new research has reviewed the evidence for sunscreen as a risk to coral, and found that while chemicals in sunscreen pose a risk to corals under laboratory conditions, they are only found at very low levels in real world environments.

That means when coral bleaching does occur, it is more likely to be due to the marine heatwaves and increased water temperatures that have come with climate change, as well as land-based run-off.  So, could sunscreen be the cause of the Barrier Reef’s bleaching? In a word, no.

Niall Wheate’s research can be found here and here.

News on Holland and Barrett can be found here and here.

More information on the Great Barrier Reef bleaching can be found here and here.