Ever since its official invention in 1932, sunscreen has been used to protect your skin when you're going to be outside for long periods of time. It provides a layer or protection between our skin and the harmful rays of the sun. Although it wasn't used in lotion form until 1932, for centuries before that people have been using things to protect their skin. All the way back in 3100BC, Egyptians used rice, jasmine, and lupine extracts as a way to protect their skin from the sun. They weren't the only ones though, in Ancient Greece they used olive oil and Indigenous people used pine needles. Later, in the 1930s, an Australian chemist created the first commercial sunscreen, Hamilton. By 1944, sunscreen had been making its way around the world and brands like L’Oreal and Coppertone were beginning to experiment. In 1977, the FDA started approving some brands to be water resistant, but only for 40-80 minutes, then you need to reapply. In 1978, the FDA required all sunscreens to have an SPF label stating the SPF rating of the sunscreen. In 2018, Hawaii banned all sunscreens containing chemicals like Oxybenzone and Octinoxate. They had found that those chemicals were really harmful to the reefs and the marine life living in the reefs. 

These are two chemicals that you see most in sunscreen. Unfortunately these are also the most harmful chemicals to coral reefs. They change the chemicals in the ocean, causing coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is when the temperature or the chemicals in the ocean stress the coral out. This can cause it to turn white or pale and slowly die. This is extremely bad as coral not only provides homes to 25% of ocean life, but it also provides a natural safety barrier that blocks 97% of a waves power (plus to build sea walls for the same protection, it would cost $2.5 million per mile), and it supports almost half a billion jobs.