Today, very few people are spending too much time in bright sunlight without some form of sunscreen. Surely, very few of them have given much thought to to what happens when it gets washed off though. The idea that 14,000 tons of the stuff is ending up in the sea every year is mind-boggling. To give that some sort of perspective, you'd need 500-600 large tanker trucks to carry it all. It's a huge amount.

Some areas in the world have already banned sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, but other chemicals such as octocrylene can accumulate in corals, which may interfere the metabolism.

A study from 2014 found that benzophenone-2 [used in hundreds of cosmetic products such as bubble bath, colognes, perfumes, and skin and haircare products to protect them from deterioration caused by UV light] can “kill juvenile corals at very low concentrations – parts per billion”, which is very concerning given that concentrations used in the study were within levels found in US wastewater.