9 thoughts on “Which Sunscreens Does Maui Law Allow? It’s Complicated”
Christine
Thank you for this informative article! You mentioned “The FDA has up to 5 more months to respond to the petition”. To clarify, is there an announced deadline by which the FDA has to make a final order on their 2021 proposed order for OTC sunscreens (which includes the GRASE status for active ingredients)?
It’s very unfortunate such misinformation would lead to legislative action like this. The studies showing reef safety used concentrations of sunscreen actives far higher than realistically possible. It also hasn’t been established that any of the approved actives actually cause harm in humans even if any minute amounts are detected in circulation. I wish we’d focus more on approving filters the rest of the world has been using for decades rather than limit our options even further. Zinc and titanium dioxide aren’t great for everyone.
Aha. I was at a Costco in San Diego last week and picked up a two-pack of Alba Botanica “Hawaiian Coconut Clear Spray Sunscreen,” since I’ve almost used up mine. It had the dreaded asterisk of discontinuation on the price sign. Now I know why. The active ingredients include: avobenzone, octisalate, and homosalate. A rebranding must be in the works. It would be awkward to sell “Hawaiian sunscreen” which is now banned. Mahalo for the heads up.
Thank you for this informative article! You mentioned “The FDA has up to 5 more months to respond to the petition”. To clarify, is there an announced deadline by which the FDA has to make a final order on their 2021 proposed order for OTC sunscreens (which includes the GRASE status for active ingredients)?
Hi Christine.
That was a comment from someone at FDA that we heard. Whether it will happen however we don’t know.
Aloha.
It’s very unfortunate such misinformation would lead to legislative action like this. The studies showing reef safety used concentrations of sunscreen actives far higher than realistically possible. It also hasn’t been established that any of the approved actives actually cause harm in humans even if any minute amounts are detected in circulation. I wish we’d focus more on approving filters the rest of the world has been using for decades rather than limit our options even further. Zinc and titanium dioxide aren’t great for everyone.
Mahalo for the info, it’s much better than most other info. Somehow I think this will be an ongoing story for many years.
Aha. I was at a Costco in San Diego last week and picked up a two-pack of Alba Botanica “Hawaiian Coconut Clear Spray Sunscreen,” since I’ve almost used up mine. It had the dreaded asterisk of discontinuation on the price sign. Now I know why. The active ingredients include: avobenzone, octisalate, and homosalate. A rebranding must be in the works. It would be awkward to sell “Hawaiian sunscreen” which is now banned. Mahalo for the heads up.
Hasn’t it been determined that bleaching of the coral is due to higher water temperatures?
What happened to the easy to figure out labeling of “Reef Safe?”
Love all your articles but would love direction on what brands are acceptable for sunscreen. After reading your article I’m more confused
Hi Denise.
There are easily 100 brands of sunscreens. A good place to start might be here: https://www.ewg.org/sunscreen/.
Aloha.