What does sunscreen actually have to do with corals?

When it's time to head to the beach, that means putting on sunscreen for us – and usually more than once. But while we're doing our skin a favour with sunscreen and protecting it from harmful sun exposure, we might unknowingly be harming the oceans. Many sunscreens protect us with chemical UV filters, such as oxybenzone and octocrylene, which sink quickly into our skin and therefore leave no white film. This is where it gets problematic for the ocean. While we're having fun in the water, freshly creamed up, some of the sunscreen comes off and the chemical UV filters end up in the water. When they settle on corals, they harm them enormously. Corals get their beautiful, glowing colours from algae that live in symbiosis with them. These algae are killed off by the chemical UV filters in many sunscreens. The chemical UV filters also affect the corals' DNA. As a result, the corals bleach and die. Corals are not only an incredibly important habitat for fish and marine plants, they also protect us from some natural disasters.
Another problem for the environment can be nanoparticles in sunscreens. To reduce the white cast of mineral UV filters, the mineral particles are often broken down to nano size. Whether these are harmless on sensitive skin and children's skin is still being debated. If the nanoparticles end up in the sea, they can harm fish and impair the growth of important micro-organisms.
But since our Naseweiss is a real clever one (Naseweiss means "smarty-pants"), it knows how to do this better. We deliberately do without chemical UV filters and instead rely on really good UVA & UVB protection from titanium dioxide & zinc oxide in the non-nano* range – simply because we want to be on the safe side that our products harm neither the environment nor people. There is still a need for research into other chemical sunscreen agents and also into the topic of nanoparticles in sunscreen. Even though the BfR (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) concludes that nanoparticles are not a problem for now, we'd rather be on the safe side. Despite the mineral UV filters, our Naseweiss leaves barely any white cast – only on parts of the body with thicker hair might a slightly visible white film appear, since the cream can't sink in as well there. But we think that's a small price to pay for protecting the oceans.
It's not just the UV filters we thought hard about with the Naseweiss – otherwise too we rely on few and natural ingredients, and deliberately leave out fragrances as well.

*The non-nano UV filters we use comply with Regulation (EC) No. 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products. In this case, nanomaterial means an insoluble or biopersistent and intentionally manufactured material with one or more external dimensions, or an internal structure, on the scale from 1 to 100 nm.