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> > Some of their sunscreen has already washed off into the water. Yes and you can't change that, since there's already a ban. > > Cláudia Mieiro, a marine b

by csdvrx 4y ago

> > Some of their sunscreen has already washed off into the water. Yes and you can't change that, since there's already a ban. > > Cláudia Mieiro, a marine biologist at the University of Aveiro in Portugal who was not involved in Downs’ study, remarked on the high concentrations of sunscreen chemicals found in the sand near the showers. The sand, she said, appears to be acting like a sink for these compounds. Isn't that a good thing? If you care about corals and marine life, and if you know that some people will not use the ideal sunscreen, you should prefer that sunscreen to be in the sand (where UV photodegradation may clean it out), rather than in the ocean: people going back into the ocean, or taking a shower at home (with the waste water then going... into the ocean) seems far worse. So a ban + allowing showers so that the uncaught sunscreens ends up in the sand seems like the best possible outcome.

eesmith 4y ago
> Isn't that a good thing? The two paragraphs after what I quoted address that, at least in passing. > where UV photodegradation may clean it out "May"? The point is with the current system "Risk assessments for both sand and water samples at a majority of the sampling sites had a Risk Quotient > 1, indicating that these chemicals could pose a serious threat to beach zones and coral reef habitats." The measured evidence is "Beach sands that are directly in the plume discharge of beach showers on three of the islands of Hawaii (Maui, Oahu, Hawai’i) were found to be contaminated with a wide array of petrochemical-based UV-filters that are found in sunscreens." (both quotes from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389422013395 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03043... ) and "Oxybenzone ranged from 30 ng/L to 27,880 ng/L in near-shore waters in Hanauma Bay." - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004565352103352X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004565352... It's not staying in the sand. It's not photodegrading fast enough. For bonus points, it's not like photodegradation doesn't have it own issues. As one of the linked-to documents points out, at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7 , "Benzophenones, including BP-3, are documented mutagens that increase the rate of damage to DNA, especially when exposed to sunlight."

by csdvrx 4y ago

eesmith 4y ago

> Isn't that a good thing? The two paragraphs after what I quoted address that, at least in passing. > where UV photodegradation may clean it out "May"? The point is with the current system "Risk assessments for both sand and water samples at a majority of the sampling sites had a Risk Quotient > 1, indicating that these chemicals could pose a serious threat to beach zones and coral reef habitats." The measured evidence is "Beach sands that are directly in the plume discharge of beach showers on three of the islands of Hawaii (Maui, Oahu, Hawai’i) were found to be contaminated with a wide array of petrochemical-based UV-filters that are found in sunscreens." (both quotes from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389422013395 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03043... ) and "Oxybenzone ranged from 30 ng/L to 27,880 ng/L in near-shore waters in Hanauma Bay." - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004565352103352X https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004565352... It's not staying in the sand. It's not photodegrading fast enough. For bonus points, it's not like photodegradation doesn't have it own issues. As one of the linked-to documents points out, at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7 , "Benzophenones, including BP-3, are documented mutagens that increase the rate of damage to DNA, especially when exposed to sunlight."