The Pacific island nation of Palau just became the first country to ban reef-killing sunscreen
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Just a tiny amount of the chemicals found in most sunscreen hurts coral.
For a coral reef, a tiny amount of sunscreen–the equivalent of a drop of water in 6.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools–can be deadly. In the Pacific island nation of Palau, where the number of tourists in a year is around seven times larger than the local population, the sunscreen those tourists wear when they swim and snorkel is a big problem. Palau is now the first nation to ban sunscreens made with “reef-toxic” chemicals like oxybenzone, octinoxate, and triclosan.