Apart from clever use of the word “durt”, the sunscreen is made from 11 food-grade ingredients - all of which are theoretically edible. Surfdurt does not contain any synthetic ingredients and is very safe. It also includes certified organic ingredients like coconut and avocado oil.
Regular sunscreens that are not eco-friendly usually contain harmful and potentially toxic ingredients that are bad both for the environment and the skin and overall health.
Also, to keep marine life safe, the key is to use SPF that uses UVA and UVB filters instead of the chemicals typically contained in the regular SPFs.
Some of the toxic ingredients that are included in regular sunscreens include:
If you are unaware of the health consequences of these ingredients, feel free to refer to the reports regarding the toxicity of these chemicals.
These ingredients are added to the product to “protect” our skin from sun damage. But our concern goes further - it is the damage it does to the environment. But what harm can sunscreen do to the environment?
Most sunscreen is washed off in tourist areas like beaches. Once these chemicals get into the ocean, they threaten coral reefs. Coral reefs are essential to support marine ecosystems and to protect the coasts from wave damage. Also, coral reefs offer protection to marine life.
This makes it essential to save coral reefs, which gives us even more reason to choose eco-friendly sunscreens. The chemicals in regular sunscreen can damage coral’s DNA, which kills the corals. It also increases coral bleaching - when the coral releases the algae that grow on it. Coral and algae depend on each other for survival, so when algae are separated from coral, the coral starves and dies.
Read the full article here.