Time To Rethink The Sunscreen

The chemicals in sunscreen have been messing with the sex of male fish off the California coast—and elsewhere. This study may go a long way to explaining some of the weirdness of the Southern California beach country.

Scientists have found that male hornyhead turbot and English sole, feeding near sewage outfalls on the Californian coast, are being feminised [sic] - and a chemical found in sunscreens is the likely culprit.

But near the beach is not the only place this has been happening.

Swiss researchers have found other suspected gender-bender chemicals from sun creams and oils building up in fish in their rivers.

The male turbot and sole three miles off the California coast, near a sewage outfall where water from the showering of all those bronzed bodies of body builders and beach bunnies ends up, have been developing ovarian tissue in their testes.

A previous UK Environment Agency study had found in 2002 that oestrogen in urine from contraceptive pills was having the same affect in British rivers. But oxybenzone was the only chemical that could be “exclusively” identified in the University of California study. Oxybenzone is the chemical that protects against the ultraviolet rays of the sun. The Swiss found octocrylene and 4-methylbenzylidene campho, two chemicals used in sunscreens and lip balms, to be building up in fish tissue.

Perhaps a cut back in the use of sunscreen is in order—for more than one reason:

there have been other concerns about potential health effects. Some clear sunscreens use nanoparticles so small that they can penetrate the skin and even get into the brain.

There is also concern about a [sic] the universal use of sunscreens. By shielding ourselves from sunlight, we produce less vitamin D, which protects against as many as 16 different cancers.

Another reason to drink milk.

Via Lucianne