Pacific nation of Palau is banning sunscreens because they're destroying coral – BGR



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Recent scientific investigations have revealed that some of the chemicals used in the world are incredibly harmful to ocean life, including coral. With the world's coral reefs already under attack from increasing ocean temperatures and human trash, they need all the help they can get, so the island of Palau is going to do its part by banning many sunscreens.

Tommy Remengesau this week, will take effect starting in 2020, giving an opportunity to tweak their formulations in order to make them less toxic to the coral bodies that sustain the reefs.

This is the first time a government has taken action against reef-toxic sunscreens. Earlier this year, adopted in 2021. The movement in the wake of studies that found that much of the 14,000 tons of sunscreen off coral.

It's important to note that none of these sunscreens are about to go extinct. There are indeed "reef-safe" sunblock formulations that are available, and which ones do not appear to harm coral organisms, but many of the most popular brands still use these formulas that are packed with toxic chemicals.

Palau, any shops found selling sunblocks that still contain the fine chemicals will face up to $ 1,000 per violation. That's a fee that could pile up very quickly, so it's unlikely that any stores will take the risk.

Palau has a good reputation for the health of its coral. Killing off the coral and causes a collapse of local ocean ecosystems would not just be bad for the environment, but would also have some serious negative effects on the country's economy.

The same is actually true for many other countries, including the United States, though in a somewhat different way. As past research has shown, letting coral reefs die will actually cost governments more than it would proactively save them from destruction.

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