Skip The Sunscreen While Diving
Skip The Sunscreen While Diving: It can damage and even kill coral reefs, says a study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Italian marine biologists have linked four UV-blocking chemicals in sunscreens to coral bleaching because they cause viral infections in the symbiotic algae that live inside reef-building coral. The viruses replicate until their algae hosts explode, infecting neighboring coral. The researchers estimate that 5,000 tons of sunscreen wash off people in oceans annually, and that up to 10 percent of coral reefs are threatened by sunscreen-induced bleaching.
A friend sent this to me with a link to the website below but I couldn't find the article on their site to reference. None the less I thought it was worth posting. Scuba Diving Magazine for Serious Divers, Undercurrent Reviews Dive Resorts and Scuba Diving Equipment
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Zach Luse
Webmaster/Adventurer
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Last edited by Zach; 11th February 2008 at 11:35 AM.
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