GUELPH POLITICAST #375 - Everyone is Still Free to Wear Sunscreen

June 1 marks the start of meteorological summer and that sunny and warm weather makes you want to go into the water. You’re also - hopefully - putting on sunscreen in order to reduce the risk of skin cancer, but in the last few years there’s been some reason to question whether sunscreen is as safe for our waterways even while it protects you from UV light. Should everyone still be free to wear sunscreen?

In fall 2020 there was a study out of the University of Alberta that suggested that the active ingredients found in sunscreen have detrimental effects on freshwater ecosystems. The researchers exposed water fleas, Daphnia magna to be more precise, to three common ingredients in sunscreen and the results showed that exposure to ultraviolet filters (UVFs) over a 48-hour period prevented the fleas from navigating through their environment.

This was kind of a big deal. Other studies showed that ultraviolet filters were having an effect on very sensitive sea water life forms like coral, but these are water fleas, one of the most common creatures found in almost every freshwater everywhere; if they’re feeling the effects of sunscreen ingredients leaching from people’s skin, then what is the total environmental impact from UVFs? That same team has been working on answering that question, and they recently released new findings.

The lead author of both studies, Aaron Boyd, is the guest on this week's podcast. Boyd's a grad student and researcher in the Department of Biology at the University of Alberta, and he will tell you about the ingredients in sunscreen, the difference between studying the effects of sunscreen in salt water versus freshwater, and why Daphnia magna are the chosen test subjects for these experiments. Also, where will the research go next and is it okay to wear sunscreen without killing a lake?

So let's talk about sunscreen on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!

This is a link to an article on the University of Alberta for the original 2020 study and this link will take you to an article about the latest research. For the scientifically literate, you can read the original research paper published in the March issue of the Journal of Hazardous Materials. TL;DR - It’s definitely okay to wear sunscreen while you’re out there having summer fun. Don’t leave home without it.

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