2023-07-07 20:01:00
This chemical component of sunscreens and cosmetics could be prohibited. It would be dangerous for the environment.
By Hugo Romani for Le Point A substance contained in sun creams could prove not only dangerous for the environment, but also for our health. © DAVID YOUNG/DPA/DPA Picture-Alliance via AFP Published on 07/07/2023 at 8:01 p.m.
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If sunscreen is essential to protect your skin this summer, it could however be dangerous for the environment. The National Agency for Health, Food, Environment and Labor Safety (Anses) has in fact determined that one of the components of sunscreen, octocrylene, is harmful to the environment. . “In a draft report on risk management options, ANSES recommends that the Ministry of the Environment initiate, at European level, a restriction proposal for octocrylene – present in particular in sunscreens – taking into account of the risks it presents for the environment”, explains this institution to TF1 Info. As such, on May 26, ANSES submitted a restriction request to the government.
Octocrylene is an ultraviolet A and B filter known to be water resistant. It is found not only in sunscreens, therefore, but also in everyday cosmetics, such as shampoos, anti-aging creams or even self-tanners.
A risk for the seabed
According The Parisian, octocrylene would considerably damage the seabed. Being neither biodegradable – that is to say likely to be decomposed by living organisms – nor bioaccumulable – which is likely to accumulate in the food chain –, it has been banned in certain territories, such as British Virgin Islands and the Marshall Islands.
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Worse, the substance could turn out to be carcinogenic. In 2021, French and American researchers proved that when the tube was opened, octocrylene could turn into a particularly dangerous endocrine disruptor: benzophenone. “When on the skin, this substance can induce dermatitis [inflammations de la peau, NDLR]it is a molecule that affects thyroid functions and disrupts the development of the reproductive organs,” explained one of the researchers.
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