When faced with both environmental and public health challenges, we sometimes find ourselves having to make difficult trade-offs. Yet as difficult as these decisions can be, we must not make them hastily, or we risk compounding our problems rather than solving them.
That is exactly the predicament facing Maui Mayor Michael Victorino. Before him — for signature or veto — is a bill passed recently by the Maui County Council in response to pressure from environmental activists. This misguided but well-intended law, known as Bill 135, would ban the sale, distribution and use of all non-mineral sunscreens in Maui County on the grounds that sunscreen ingredients negatively affect coral reefs. If passed, this ban will remove a majority of sunscreens currently on the shelf.
However, the notion that sunscreens are causing major damage to coral reefs has not actually been proven yet. Dr. Ku‘ulei Rodgers, principal investigator of the Coral Reef Ecology Lab and the Coral Reef Assessment and Monitoring Program at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, has researched coral for the past 30 years and is known for her research on Hanauma Bay. In a recent Star-Advertiser article Rodgers explained, “There is no strong evidence to state sunscreens threaten coral reefs … Our coral reef ecology lab has not seen the effects of sunscreen use on bleaching in our monitoring efforts.”
In the emerging science of ultraviolet filters’ effects on the environment, more and more researchers are noting that the studies completed to date were done in labs at concentrations 1,000 times higher than ever recorded in the ocean and bays of Hawaii. There are concerns that the studies did not reflect real-life conditions and if sunscreens were a major cause of coral die-offs, we would expect to see coral damage where sunscreen concentrations are highest, but the data doesn’t support that. This severe lack of data doesn’t warrant sweeping bans on sunscreen products.
As a lifelong waterman who finds his way into the ocean several times a week, I share a love for the natural environment and a deep respect for the urgency of addressing the effects of human activity on it. Yet as a board-certified dermatologist who has practiced dermatology on Maui since 1989, I have seen first-hand the very serious effects of sun exposure on the health and well-being of the people in our community.
I have personally treated more than 20,000 patients and over 30,000 skin cancers. I have also been involved in sunscreen research and development for 25 years and plan to launch a line of “reef safe” sunscreen products next year. In one sense, Bill 135 might be good for my business since 80% of my sunscreen line is mineral. Yet it would go against everything to which my fellow dermatologists and I have dedicated our lives.
It’s for this reason that the Hawaii Dermatological Society and the American Academy of Dermatology strongly oppose the restrictions that would be imposed if Victorino fails to veto Bill 135.
We implore him to do so immediately, and to postpone further action on this matter until receiving the guidance that’s expected in 2022 from both the FDA, who will address the effect of chemical sunscreens on human health, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Ad Hoc Committee on Sunscreens, which will address both the effect of sunscreens on the aquatic environment and the effect the withdrawal of chemical sunscreens would have on human health and safety.
Mayor Victorino must veto Bill 135. Rather than acting on fear and misinformation, let us move forward in a spirit of malama pono — for the health of our community and of the coral reefs we love and respect.
George Martin, M.D., is a dermotologist in Kihei, Maui.
