Sunscreens in Coastal Ecosystems: Occurrence, Behavior, Effect and Risk

This book provides a comprehensive and authoritative review of the chemical analysis of UV filters in coastal waters and their impact on the marine environment. The sun care is today the most important sector within the cosmetics industry, with annual increases in sales. The main components of sunscreens, organic and inorganic UV filters, have been detected in many coastal regions, with the highest concentrations in coastal areas under high anthropogenic pressure. Moreover, these compounds have been found to be bioaccumulated in aquatic biota causing biological and toxicological responses; some organic UV filters act as endocrine disruptors in aquatic biota, affecting survival, behavior, growth, development and reproduction. On the other hand, inorganic UV filters, mainly based on nanoparticles, have been demonstrated to have various impacts on marine organisms, such as inducing oxidative stress in abalones, accumulating in microalgae, affecting the immune response in mussels, bleaching corals, and genotoxicity in fish, among others. All these effects of sunscreens on the marine environment highlight the need for more stringent and environmentally friendly regulations.

This book covers the latest analytical methodologies used in assessing the impact of UV filters impact on marine waters, especially on marine biota, and also critiques the global regulation of UV filters and the environmental risk of using sunscreens. Featuring specific case studies of the environmental effects of sunscreens in the Mediterranean Sea and Hawaii, which highlight the importance of balancing human health with environmental health of coastal ecosystems, it will appeal not only to scientists and students from various disciplines (environmental chemistry, biology, ecology, biogeochemistry, fisheries and climate change among others), but also to environmental managers wanting to promote new restrictive regulations on the use of UV filters, and to professionals from the cosmetic industry interested in the development of eco-friendly sunscreens.

Antonio Tovar-Sánchez is currently a senior scientist leading the Marine Chemistry lab in the Institute of Marine Science of Andalusian belonging to the Spanish Research Council (ICMAN-CSIC). For 20 years his scientific efforts focus on the role of trace elements in the sea, mainly metals and inorganic nutrients, attending their sources, fluxes, distribution and biological impact, and their sensitivity to changing environmental conditions. In 2006 he was awarded with the Eur-Oceans Young Scientist Award “In recognition of the excellence of this research in the field of biogeochemistry and the development of new methods to elucidate the interplay between metals and biology in the ocean” (UE EUR-OCEANS Network of Excellence). He has chaired or participated on numerous national and international working groups, review panels, editorial boards, committees, workshops, and scientific teams. He is a member of the FUTUREARTH Spanish steering committee and member of the GEOTRACES scientific steering committee. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles in Q1 journals. His recent scientific efforts have focused on the impact of anthropogenic activities on the coastal ecosystem, as is the case of tourism, mainly in the effect of emerging pollutants.

David Sánchez-Quiles obtained his PhD in Global Change at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in 2015 with a Thesis project devoted to the toxic effect of sunscreens in coastal marine waters. His research is primarily aimed at improving the understanding of the bioavailability and mobility of environmental organic and inorganic contaminants, in part by developing sensitive analytical techniques for complex matrices and heterogeneous systems. He has participated in 9 R&D projects funded through competitive calls of public or private entities. As a result, he has published 12 scientific articles, all of them in Q1 peer review journals. His investigations about the toxic effects of the sunscreen components have had a high social impact (including the dissemination of the results in interviews at national and international radio and TV news and in newspapers and magazines, private and public blogs, among others). His contributions have increased the awareness of society about the role of sunscreen on marine environment and it will surely promote further research efforts on this field in the upcoming years.

Julián Blasco is the Director of ICMAN-CSIC and the leader of the research group “Ecotoxicology, Ecophysiology and Biodiversity of Aquatic Systems”. He has been involved in more than 60 research projects and 22 research contracts at national and international levels and has published more than 175 scientific articles in peer-reviewed Q1 journals. Dr. Blasco has supervised 15 Ph.D. and more than 20 Master theses and has been involved in the Master Erasmus Mundus Water and Coastal Management (WACOMA) and the PhD. Program Erasmus Mundus MACOMA, among others. He has published a wide number of book chapters, edited the book Marine Ecotoxicology (Elsevier) and is associated editor and editorial board member of several journals in the field. Currently, he is the President of the Iberoamerican Society of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology and a member of the SETAC Europe Council.