spirit prison, it is more and more often on the sea floor. Whether on the Maldives and Hawaii, Australia, and Palau – in many places the bleaching of the coral, once colourful lively reefs degenerate into deserts, to barren. Proven to drive weather phenomena such as El Niño, and rising water temperatures due to climate change, the decline of the reefs. Less well known: Even sun creams kill the reef. Responsible for some of the chemicals they contain are; first of all, oxybenzone, Octocrylene and paraben-free.
The Pacific holiday Paradise of Palau wants to ban that is why sun creams containing these substances, in order to protect its famous coral reefs. In may, the U.S. already had the state of Hawaii is a sun milk ban as of 2024 decided. A government spokesman in Palau pointed to scientific evidence that chemicals from the sun to the sensitive corals to die off would protection products in small quantities. The ban should be there on 1. January enter into force in 2024.
“On any given day, a popular diving arrives at Palau and snorkel places with litres of sunscreen in the ocean,” said the spokesman. In the future, the import or sale of prohibited sun should be occupied creams with a fine of the equivalent of 880 Euro.
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The American sea authority, Noaa estimated that each year 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen on coral reefs. Because they degrade slowly, they accumulate. In most of the creams and Sprays, oxybenzone, Octocrylene, and parabens are still included, which protect against UV-radiation or the means of preserving. Repeated studies have suggested that these substances in coral enrich (Environmental Science & Technology: Tsui et al., 2017), and these as well as other sea inhabitants harm.
chemicals affect the growth of marine animals
So, for example, Octocrylene, and in four out of five European sun protection products should have an impact on marine organisms. It was investigated about how it fleas water is detrimental to ciliates, or Zebra fish (Ecotoxicol Environ Saf.: Park et al., 2017 & Chemosphere: Gao et al., 2013 & Chemosphere: Zhang et al., 2016). The substance has therefore, among other things, on the hormone balance. What will follow is unclear.
corals What are corals?
coral are living organisms and belong to the group of cnidarians. They occur both in the tropics, but also in the cold deep sea. Tropical coral feel in a residential community with zooxanthellae. The algae sitting on the surface of the coral, and through photosynthesis with nutrients. In good living conditions, corals build together with the algae over the years, unique, species-rich coral Ecosystems, with dainty stone and iridescent-colored fan coral, the life in addition to fishing, starfish, mussels and many other organisms. Cold-water corals can survive in much colder and deeper waters. They feed on tiny floating organisms drifting in the sea: the Plankton.
