Heartburn and Indigestion Are *Not* the Same Thing. Here’s Why That Matters

Spoiler: Both can make you feel the burn.

Our fascination with “clean” beauty was never just about putting certain ingredients on our skin. It was also about reducing waste, lessening our impact on the environment, and being more responsible with our consumption. 

In that vein, the idea of reef-safe sunscreen sounds pretty damn good. Coral reefs not only sustain vital underwater ecosystems (about 25% of all marine species), they do us a solid here on land. They protect coastlines from storms and erosions, are an important source of food, and contain chemical compounds that have been used in treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, and cardiovascular diseases, among others. 

However, the research on sunscreen’s effect on our coral friends is still new and evolving, so products calling themselves “reef-safe” have no real way of knowing if they are, indeed, reef-safe. That said, we’d rather err on the side of caution and shop with the reef in mind, so we tapped the pros to help us understand what reef-safe sunscreen really means and give us a few recommendations for our next sunscreen purchase.

How does sunscreen impact the ocean? 

When you get in the ocean, your sunscreen inevitably washes away into the water to some extent. The problem is that many sunscreens contain ingredients like oxybenzone, octinoxate, and octocrylene. These chemical ingredients absorb UV radiation, Dr. Sartor says, but unfortunately, they may also bleach coral reefs, impair the growth and photosynthesis of algae, and harm the overall health and reproduction of ocean wildlife. Once a coral reef dies, it rarely comes back, and entire ecosystems depend on its vitality. 

Studies are still underway to determine just how much damage these ingredients are doing to underwater ecosystems (and there are certainly other factors like climate change). Still, early lab-based research with these ingredients has been enough to raise environmentalists’ concerns. 

“How these lab-based studies translate into what