Sunscreens

It’s time to tell you more about sunscreens…

Sure it feels always great to be tanned at Summer, but don’t forget that tanning is only your skin response to the sun exposure to UVB radiation. This radiation damages your cells DNA which react by creating melanocytes and gives you this tanned effect.

Regarding UVA radiation, remember that it goes deeper in your dermis and is responsible for dark spots, wrinkles, skin aging and cancers.

That’s why it is so important to have a sunscreen protecting you for both UVA and UVB radiations.

What’s inside sunscreens?

Conventional sunscreens are made with synthetic agents coming from petrochemistry. They play on the color, the texture, the scent and also the packaging to seduce consumers and even sometimes, mislead them. But the worst thing in all that is that these sunscreens are dangerous.

First, it’s dangerous for you!

Oxybenzone and octinoxate are both two chemical products contained in sunscreens and proven to be hormone disruptors.

Then, dangerous for the environment

These two chemicals are also responsible for the ocean pollution. They damage marine species and especially coral reefs. The reproduction process and growth cycle of corals are jeopardized because of these chemicals. The direct consequence is the coral bleaching which sadly happens when it’s dying.

And just so you know, approximately 14,000 tons of sunscreens are discharged into the oceans each year!

When mass tourism destroys Nature

You probably heard that Indonesia closed some well-known areas. Well it’s because of mass tourism and the pollution it creates on beaches and seas.

Well, I was pleased to see last year that Mexico was forbidding, in some reserves, sunscreens which are not environmental-friendly. I was disappointed though, to see that nobody was actually checking that…

And many other countries worry about this ocean pollution caused by sunscreens!

Today, the reefs at risk are in Hawaii, The United States Virgin Islands, Israel and obviously the Great Barrier Reef.