The next time you take a dip in the warm waters of the Caribbean or Hawaii, think about this: you aren't just swimming in seawater. There may also be as many as 82,000 kinds of chemicals from personal care products that have made their way into the world's oceans, according to a report by Marine Life, a marine conservation NGO. And one of the biggest and most permanent contributors to this massive pollution is sunscreen. In 2015, it was estimated that around 14,000 tons of sunscreen are ending up in the world's coral reefs per year and causing irreparable damage. So what makes sunscreen so deadly to coral reefs? A few years ago, after testing more than 50 sunscreen brands, Dr. Downs and...
Finding your sunscreen soul-mate is the key motivating factor for using it regularly, experts agree.
“If you think your sunscreen is pasty, thick or smelly, you have the wrong kind,” says Dr. Jeffrey Dover, clinical associate professor of dermatology at Yale University. “It may make you less likely to put it on, or to reapply when you do.”
Happily, there are plenty of lightweight, sheer formulas
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know to apply sunscreen. According to The WHO There’s lifesaving reason to: About 3.5 million cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed this year. “The incidence of skin cancer, including melanoma – the deadliest kind – is going up, and wearing sunscreen is one of the best ways to prevent it,” says Dr. Ronald Moy, a dermatologist and spokesperson for the Skin Cancer Foundation. It’s the number one sunburn-spot, dermatologists say. “People apply sunscreen to their face, but either skip or speed over their nose – especially if they wear glasses, because they don’t want to take them off,” Wang says. Moy adds, “80% of the skin cancers I remove are on...
