Reef-safe sunscreen: environmentalconcern or marketing hype?

In this Sweep the Sun column we discuss the popular sunscreen claims about reef safety Since the bans of some UV filters on some islands or US states, “reef-safe” has become a worldwide claim (Figure 1). Let’s take a closer look at the background of this claim.A few months ago, we already discussed “Transparency in Cosmetics”. 1 The basis for that was a webinar by the IFSCC. This column is somewhat related to the transparency question and has also been triggered by an IFSCC Webinar debate, that took place this month. 2 The question was: Do you think “reef-safe” sunscreens actually help protect the marine environment? Yes or No? 230 IFSCC members participated in the webinar. The initial poll showed a 43% in favor and 55% opposed to this question…