The sweet and salty aroma¹（芳香） of sunscreen and seawater signals a relaxing trip to the shore. But scientists are now reporting that the idyllic²（悠闲的） beach vacation comes with an environmental hitch³. When certain sunblock ingredients wash off skin and into the sea, they can become toxic⁴ to some of the ocean's tiniest inhabitants, which are the main course for many other marine⁵ animals. Their study appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Antonio Tovar-Sanchez and David Sánchez-Quiles point out that other than staying indoors, slathering on sunscreen is currently the best way to protect skin from the sun's harmful rays. But when sunbathers splash into the ocean to cool off, some of their lotions⁶ and creams get rinsed⁷（冲洗） into the water. The problem is that titanium dioxide and zinc⁹ oxide⁸ nanoparticles, which are common ingredients in sunblock, can react with ultraviolet light from the sun and form new compounds, such as hydrogen peroxide, that could be toxic.

 

High amounts of hydrogen peroxide can harm phytoplankton（浮游植物）, the microscopic¹⁰ algae¹¹ that feed everything from small fish to shrimp¹² to whales. The scientists wanted to figure out just how serious of an impact beachgoers could be having on life in coastal¹³ waters.

 

To investigate the matter, they hit the beach. They went to Majorca Island's Palmira beach on the Mediterranean¹⁴ along with about 10,000 beachgoers, a small portion of the more than 200 million tourists that flock to Mediterranean shores every year. Based on lab tests, seawater sampling and tourism data, the researchers concluded that titanium dioxide from sunblock was largely responsible for a dramatic summertime spike¹⁵ in hydrogen peroxide levels in coastal waters -- with potentially dangerous consequences for aquatic¹⁶ life.

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