Save Eco Destinations

Choroni Beach, near Maracay, Venezuela

If you’re new around here, you might not know how strongly I feel about sunscreen – which kinds are bad and which are good, both for the planet and for you. Most people think sunscreen is the best way to avoid skin cancer. I partly agree. I also know that many ingredients in the most popular sunblocks are themselves carcinogenic (cancer-causing) and that vitamin D, which we can only get through sunblock-free sun exposure, actually prevents cancer and other health problems. Read on to learn more.

Here’s a brief post at the green tips website Green is Sexy that summarizes several of the things I’ve talked about in the past: green your sunscreen. It mentions a few harmful ingredients to watch out for and why.

Chemicals to avoid

Like the GIS post says, you should steer clear of the following ingredients in all your sunscreens (lip balms, sprays, and so on): octinoxate, oxybenzone, 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, and butylparaben (a preservative).  Another one to avoid entirely, this one not mentioned in GIS, is retinyl palmitate, which may speed up cancer growth. Click on the links to read all about these treacherous chemicals.

In truth, all parabens have a bad reputation, so look out for those in the ingredients of your shampoos, conditioners, body lotions, deodorants, toothpaste, makeup, personal lubricants (!), etc. You’ll be surprised at how ubiquitous parabens are once you start looking for them! It’s scary, really. But that’s why educating yourself is the best thing you can do to protect yourself and the people you care about, as well as marine ecosystems (these toxic ingredients bleach corals!). Speaking of which, all the chemicals than end in –zone, such as the aforementioned oxybenzone, are supposedly unsafe – I recommend that you avoid them.

The Environmental Working Group

Educate yourself

The cosmetic database of the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a wonderful resource where you can look up chemicals and learn what they are, what they do, whether they are harmful, and if so, why and to what extent. The website is a gem. You can look up sunscreens by SPF and other products and it will tell you which specifically are the safest and which are the most dangerous and why.

I would also like to note that it’s perfectly healthy to spend a moderate amount of time each day in the sun without wearing any sunscreen. This is the most efficient way for the body to absorb the much-needed vitamin D (it’s actually a hormone). Interestingly, patients of many types of cancer, including that of the breast, have been found to have exceptionally low levels of vitamin D, and vitamin D has been shown to prevent multiple types of cancer as well as heart disease and other conditions. Some experts argue that it is a lack of vitamin D as well as the carcinogenic ingredients in sunblock that are causing cancer – not the sun!

Some articles by Dr. Mercola on the subject (I love Dr. Mercola, and although he does sell some products, which presents a conflict of interest, he doesn’t sell sunshine!):

• The Sunscreen Myth: How Sunscreen Products Actually Promote Cancer
• Four Out of Five Sunscreens May Be Hazardous to Your Health
• Does Too Much Sun Really Cause Melanoma?
• Trash Your Sunscreen and Other Summer Sun Tips (This one lists many harmful sunscreen ingredients.)

Posts right here on Save Eco Destinations:

• Doing your part: natural skincare for eco travel
• What sunscreen is doing to us and our planet

Natural German sunscreen

Alternatives

Several friends have asked me what brands are safe to use, since most are loaded with the dreaded –zones and parabens.

I’ve tried Hawaiian Tropic Biodegradable sunblock SPF 50 in spray form and Kiss My Face sunspray lotion in SPF 30. They’re both good and I especially like the Hawaiian Tropic, which is very easy to apply and doesn’t need to be rubbed in. However, Kiss My Face is a much more trustworthy brand, as they don’t test their products on animals and they offer fragrance-free options. I bought the Hawaiian Tropic when I was abroad and it was the most eco-friendly sunscreen I could find.

Dr. Mercola, whom I mentioned above, sells some sunscreens that should be pretty swell. Instead of containing harmful chemicals, they use green tea and zinc oxide to protect the skin while avoiding artificial fragrances and toxic ingredients of all sorts, according to the website. The products are also hypoallergenic and water-resistant. Here’s a long article that explains all about his products.

On EWG’s cosmetics database you will find lots of safe sunscreens bunched by SPF. For example, here are the ones with SFP 30+. You’re sure to find some awesome ones there. I’d love to hear recommendations!

Stay safe, everyone.

Peruvian Amazon - photo by Save Bio Gems

The struggle of the amazonicos is no longer to free their land – they now must also fight mining, oil and gas giants such as Texaco (now owned by Chevron) who are polluting the mountains, rivers, and rainforests through deforestation, the dumping of toxic waste, and other noxious tactics.

The contamination is causing the death of fish, birds, and other wildlife, as well as people, such that they cannot sustain themselves. Natives are dying of cancer due to the carcinogens being dumped into the ecosystem.

Natives are consequently working to block out the multinational corporations guilty of this ecocide – and classism – and defended by the government for over three decades.

Pablo Fajardo, lead attorney for the indigenous people suing Texaco, had this to say:

“More than a billion gallons of poisonous toxic water were dumped into marshes and rivers of this area. What the people demand is the complete remediation of the area Texaco contaminated.”

The agro-chemicals used by agricultural industries that grow food to export to the U.S. devastate the soil and, of course, do not contribute to local communities. Eco-socialists and others believe a new agrarian reform is needed to combat these corporations.

Whether from the north or the south, 30,000 amazonicos have joined together despite different nationalities and dialects and even languages to organize peaceful struggle. Just last year, their efforts bred success.

The indigenous movement even succeeded against the armed opposition staged by the government last June:

Indigenous groups in Peru have called off protests after two controversial laws, decreed by President Alan García to implement a free trade agreement with the U.S., were revoked by the country’s Congress in an 82-12 vote late June 18.

The amazonicos or indigenas are laudably working to build power, not take it, through peaceful struggle. The fight is against global warming in addition to exploitation of the land and the communities, as workers are not unionized nor receive vacation or social security.

Filmmaker Joe Berlinger explains the struggle in his latest documentary film, “Crude.”

Robin at Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve

Sometimes it’s the little things that matter. Whether you consider yourself an eco expert or a newbie, skim this list in case there’s something new in there for you! And please feel free to add to it in the comments section.

This planet is yours, mine, and everyone else’s – this includes non-human animals. It is not anyone’s to trash. It is our home. Let’s humbly bow and thank our Mother Earth for sustaining us, and offer our efforts to be sustainable in return. Join in the cycle of life, not of destruction.

A natural bug repellent: Herbal Armor

Biodegradable skincare protects the environment – and you – from carcinogens e.g. parabens

When going to marine and wildlife reserves, many tour companies will ask that you slather on biodegradable sunblock and bug repellent for diving into the ocean and cenotes, going kayaking, and so on. It would be fantastic to adopt this preference constantly, though. It’s the same as littering: shouldn’t we refrain from littering all the time rather than only when we are asked to?

First of all, regular sunscreens bleach corals, which are already dying off at an alarming rate due to several factors, this one included, and also global warming, irresponsible human activities, and other types of pollution. So any time you get in the water — even into a pool, as all water ends up in the ocean eventually and it is not treated for toxic chemicals, and even less in remote areas such as Tulum and Xcacel Xcacelito — you would be helping to take care of the environment by using only environmentally-friendly products.

Last, I will reiterate that regular sunblock contains carcinogenic ingredients — that is, they cause cancer. You would thus be doing yourself a big favor by staying away from those products.

FYI: I found Hawaiian Tropic Biodegradable sunscreen in SPF 30 and 50 as well as a natural bug repellent in Tulum, on the road where myriad hotels are located on the coast. And you can, of course, find many such products online; for example, this bug repellent, this reef-safe biodegradable sunscreen, this deodorant, this shower gel, this shampoo, and this conditioner.  

Check your cosmetics and ingredients here for safety.

Demonstators block the entrance to Camp Garcia Naval Base January 13, 2003 in Vieques, Puerto Rico. For decades, warships and planes used it as a firing range before it was closed in 2003. A new U.S. congressional report, prepared for a hearing on March 12, 2009, says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a branch of the Health and Human Services department charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites, "deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns" of residents exposed to the toxic munitions left behind. Photo from www.cpcml.ca

The U.S. polluted Puerto Rico through live-fire and bombing exercises from WWII until 2003 while it used the area as the biggest training ground for the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Forces. 

The Navy is now fortunately trying to undo the damage by cleaning its shit up. But not because they’re a magnanimous bunch. In truth, it’s a response to the Vieques Government and almost 9,300 residents going after the U.S. Govt for polluting their land and burdening the population with illnesses.

Awesome: the Department of the Interior wants to turn the area into a wildlife reserve once it’s cleaned up. Yay. And small portions of the area including undeveloped beaches have already been opened to the public as a wildlife refuge by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Sucky: to “clean it up” by getting rid of hazardous unexploded munitions, the Navy wants to detonate them in the open air. Actually, it’s already started conducting these explosions. The Navy also wishes to burn 100 acres of tropical jungle to find where the hell they placed cluster bombs and explode them.

Imagine the smoke, violent noise (causing mass anxiety and general disruption, I presume), destruction and other crap that would – once again – plague the region’s humans, non-humans, and ecosystems if the Navy goes ahead with this at full capacity.

photo by NOAA - ccma.nos.noaa.gov

Naturally, the locals are pissed and suspicious. For a long time now, locals have resisted the Navy’s operations on their home land. And they know this clean-up scheme will screw them once more.

“The great majority of emergency room visits here last year were for respiratory problems,” said Evelyn Delerme Camacho, the mayor of Vieques, PR. “Can they guarantee that contaminants or smoke won’t reach the population? Would we have to wait and see if there’s a problem?”

Head of the Navy’s Vieques restoration program Christopher T. Penny said that thus far, using a remote-control device to penetrate the vegetation has not yielded favorable results. Further, it unexploded bombs are too powerful and therefore unsuitable to be exploded in detonation chambers. Nice bullshit detector.

EPA reps defend the Navy and claim its plans are standard protocol. EPA deputy director in San Juan Jose C. Font went as far as to say the detonations do not pose a threat to human health (um, what about the fauna and flora, genius?) – if limited (what is “limited”?) amounts go off at a time and the wind remains calm. He said that the air quality would be consistently monitored throughout the detonations.

"A gift for Vieques from Clinton and the U.S. Navy" - photo by thegully.com

Gee, with the stellar reputation of the U.S. throughout the Americas, not to mention globally, I’m sure the peeps at Vieques will trust the EPA’s every word and take a chill pill.

After all, the TNT, napalm, depleted uranium, mercury, lead and other chemicals, including PCBs, all potentially present at Vieques are all harmless.

Oh – also, the EPA said the cleanup could last up to a decade.

Excuse me?

Bastards!

More bullshit:

“In 2003, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which assesses health hazards at Superfund sites, concluded that levels of heavy metals and explosive compounds found in Vieques’s soil, groundwater, air and fish did not pose a health risk.

Really? That’s funny, because cancers of the breast, cervix and uterus have increased by 300% over the past 20 years.

But this year the registry agency said it would “rigorously” revisit its 2003 finding, and its director, Dr. Howard Frumkin, plans to visit Vieques on Wednesday to meet with residents.”

PR is asking Obama to get his ass in gear and “achieve an environmentally acceptable cleanup” and “closely monitor the health of the people of Vieques and promote appropriate remedies.” It is the least the U.S. could do. The least.

Because if those bombs are not removed, accidental explosions could take place. Any. Time. Actually, this may happen regardless.

“The real risk is that there’s no technology available that would guarantee that they’ve removed every piece of ordnance,” said Jacqueline MacDonald Gibson, an assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Always shitting on everyone. I am so sick of their bullshit. I guess ignorance is bliss. Just reading Naomi Klein’s Disaster Capitalism, for example, makes my blood boil. My mother has had friends “disappear” during a dictatorship funded by the U.S. Government in the late 1970s. I won’t even get into Pinochet. Jesus Christ…

Some good news:

Once the whole mess is over, locals want to use the area for ecotourism too, and housing. These people live in poverty.

Fishers are already enjoying catching their prey in peace, and endangered turtles such as the loggerheads might finally be able to reclaim the land for nesting once the chaos subsides.

Source: NYT.