Business View Caribbean - November 2015 13
from it. It demonstrates that exposure of coral planu-
lae (baby coral) to oxybenzone, produces gross mor-
phological deformities, damages their DNA, and, most
alarmingly, acts as an endocrine disruptor. The latter
causes the coral to encase itself in its own skeleton
leading to death.
These effects were observed as low as 62 parts per
trillion, the equivalent to a drop of water in six and a
half Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Measurements of oxybenzone in seawater within coral
reefs in Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands, for exam-
ple, found concentrations ranging from 800 parts per
trillion to 1.4 parts per million. This is over 12 times
higher than the concentrations necessary to impact
on coral.
A team of marine scientists from Virginia, Florida, Is-
rael, the National Aquarium (U.S.) and the U.S. NOAA
undertook the study. Lead author Dr. Craig Downs of
Haereticus Environmental Laboratory Virginia, said,
“The use of oxybenzone-containing products needs to
be seriously deliberated in islands and areas where
coral reef conservation is a critical issue. We have
lost at least 80% of the coral reefs in the Caribbean.
Any small effort to reduce oxybenzone pollution could
mean that a coral reef survives a long, hot summer,
or that a degraded area recovers. Everyone wants to
build coral nurseries for reef restoration, but this will
achieve little if the factors that originally killed off the
reef remain or intensify in the environment.”
Between 6,000 and 14,000 tons of sunscreen lotion
are emitted into coral reef areas each year, much of
which contains between one and 10% oxybenzone.
