The ban on sunscreen will save coral reefs – Pages

Between Japan and Australia lies the diver's paradise, the island of Palau. The crystal clear waters and coral reefs attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year to the country, which has more than 20,000 inhabitants.

The government believes that the popularity of tourist destinations is detrimental to nature – especially coral reefs.

According to the Palaus government, one of the bears is sunscreen. A law that will come into effect in 2020 prohibits any sale of sunscreen containing chemicals labeled as coral reefs. Tourists can expect prohibited creams to be seized, while sellers risk up to the equivalent of 9,000 SEK fine.

Destroy paradise

"Plastic waste, chemical pollution, climate change and overuse of resources continue to threaten our paradise," writes Palaus President Tommy E. Remengesau in a commentary on the amendment.

When infested bathers enter the water, sunscreen rinses slowly. Each year, about 14,000 tons of sunscreen are estimated in the garden and some researchers believe that these chemicals can cause coral rejuvenation or even kill them.

A quarter of marine life is associated with coral reefs, which play an important role in the ecosystem.

A ban on sunscreen has already been applied to wallpaper in the Indian Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. But a change in the law will not save the coral reefs, according to Michael Tedengren, an associate professor in the department of ecology, environment and botany at Stockholm University.

If you talk about tourists who bathe, their level is extremely low. It's much worse if everyone pee in the water. Eutrophication would be a much bigger problem than the sunscreen they wear, "he told TT.

"The smallest problem"

But people affected by coral reefs have no doubt, according to Tedengren. Sometimes tourists stomp, break parts, collect corals and feed fish.

The big problem is the people on the coral reefs. There are so many crazy people that they find. The sunscreen on the skin is perhaps the smallest problem in reality.