If enough people were aware of the damage caused by sunscreen, he says, many could be swayed into buying eco-friendly sunscreen that might cost a little bit more but is perhaps less likely to damage the environment. Ohm says he thinks there's a chance to mitigate the damage by raising awareness about the potential harms of sunscreen and the risks posed to the environment. Coral reefs are already at risk due to rising water temperatures, and getting covered with a cocktail of toxins certainly doesn't help.' To be clear, more research is needed to determine how toxic sunscreens and the ingredients in them. 'The damage is bad but it could be much worse,' Ohm says, 'and if we continue dumping sunscreen into the ocean it could threaten coral populations worldwide. Damage to the reefs is happening, whether it's due largely to sunscreens or not, and consumers have an opportunity to protect the reefs while also protecting themselves with adequate sunscreen. However, 'more research is needed' isn't a good reason to totally disregard the health of our coral reefs. The duration of studies has been relatively short (a few hours up to a few days), with more information needed about the long-term impacts.It focused on individual chemicals, rather than sunscreens as a whole.It was conducted in laboratory settings, rather than in real environments.The International Coral Reef Initiative released a report in 2018 ( PDF) stating that much of the research to date is limited because: When coral becomes bleached, it is susceptible to viral infections and death. Those chemicals have since been banned for sale and use in Palau. The island nation of Palau released a report in 2017 ( PDF) that says scientists detected harmful levels of 10 chemicals in Jellyfish Lake, a popular tourist attraction for swimming and water sports.Yet another study in 2017 speaks out against oxybenzone as a harmful compound to both humans and coral reefs, but again, uses laboratory data that may or may not reflect what's really happening to the coral reefs.This study was conducted in laboratory settings, which may or may not correlate to real-life settings. Another 2015 study replicated the findings of the above study, but this time with benzophenone-2 (another chemical in the same class as oxybenzone).

This study was conducted in laboratory settings. A 2015 study found that oxybenzone directly contributed to bleaching of coral in both light and darkness, and that oxybenzone caused the planula (an important component of coral reproduction) to harden.However, the study involved direct application of sunscreens to corals and higher concentrations of sunscreen than found in natural settings, which doesn't represent real-life scenarios. In 2008, scientists concluded that sunscreens cause viral infections in corals, which resulted in rapid bleaching, leaving them susceptible to death, especially in corals subjected to higher water temperatures.

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