Sunscreen bottles are frequently labeled as “reef-friendly” and “coral-safe.” These claims generally mean that the lotions replaced oxybenzone—a chemical that can harm corals—with something else. But are these other chemicals really safer for reefs than oxybenzone?
This question led us, two environmental chemists, to team up with biologists who study sea anemones as a model for corals. Our goal was to uncover how sunscreen harms reefs so that we could better understand which components in sunscreens are really “coral-safe.”
In our new study, published in Science, we found that when corals and sea anemones absorb oxybenzone, their cells turn it into phototoxins, molecules that are harmless in the dark but become toxic under sunlight.
Sunlight is made of many different wavelengths of light. Longer wavelength—like visible light—are typically harmless. But light at shorter wavelengths—like ultraviolet light—can pass through the surface of skin and damage DNA and cells. Sunscreens, including oxybenzone, ...
