Consensus Study Report
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This activity was supported by a contract between the National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-27283-4
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-27283-1
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26381
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2022917247
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Review of Fate, Exposure, and Effects of Sunscreens in Aquatic Environments and Implications for Sunscreen Usage and Human Health. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26381.
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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CURRENTLY MARKETED SUNSCREENS AND POTENTIAL HUMAN IMPACTS OF CHANGES IN SUNSCREEN USAGE
Members
CHARLES A. MENZIE (Chair), Exponent, New York
MARK R. CULLEN (Vice-Chair), Stanford University (Retired), Palo Alto, California
SCOTT BELANGER, Procter & Gamble (Retired), West Chester, Ohio
KEVIN CASSEL, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Honolulu
DIRK ELSTON, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston
KAREN GLANZ, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
CHRISTOPHER P. HIGGINS, Colorado School of Mines, Golden
REBECCA D. KLAPER, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
CARYS L. MITCHELMORE, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons
ROBERT H. RICHMOND, University of Hawaii at Manoa
EMMA J. ROSI, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, New York
KANADE SHINKAI, University of California, San Francisco
PAUL WESTERHOFF, Arizona State University, Tempe
CHERYL M. WOODLEY, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Charleston, South Carolina
Staff
EMILY TWIGG, Study Director, Ocean Studies Board
VANESSA CONSTANT, Associate Program Officer, Ocean Studies Board
SUSAN ROBERTS, Director, Ocean Studies Board
CLIFFORD DUKE, Director, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology
CAROLYN SHORE, Senior Program Officer, Health and Medicine Division
TRENT CUMMINGS, Senior Program Assistant, Ocean Studies Board (until June 2021)
GRACE CALLAHAN, Program Assistant, Ocean Studies Board
OCEAN STUDIES BOARD
Members
CLAUDIA BENITEZ-NELSON (Chair), University of South Carolina, Columbia
MARK R. ABBOTT, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
ROSIE ‘ANOLANI ALEGADO, University of Hawaii at Manoa
CAROL ARNOSTI, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
AMY BOWER, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
LISA CAMPBELL, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
THOMAS S. CHANCE, ASV Global, LLC (Retired), Broussard, Louisiana
DANIEL COSTA, University of California, Santa Cruz
JOHN DELANEY, University of Washington (Retired), Seattle
TIMOTHY GALLAUDET, Ocean STL Consulting, LLC, North Beach, Maryland
SCOTT GLENN, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
MARCIA ISAKSON, The University of Texas at Austin
LEKELIA JENKINS, Arizona State University, Tempe
NANCY KNOWLTON (NAS), Smithsonian Institution (Retired), Washington, District of Columbia
ANTHONY MacDONALD, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey
GALEN McKINLEY, Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, New York, New York
THOMAS MILLER, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons
S. BRADLEY MORAN (Ex-Officio Member), University of Alaska Fairbanks
RUTH M. PERRY, Shell Exploration & Production Company, Houston, Texas
DEAN H. ROEMMICH, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, California
JAMES SANCHIRICO, University of California, Davis
MARK J. SPALDING, The Ocean Foundation, Washington, District of Columbia
PAUL WILLIAMS, Suquamish Indian Tribe, Seattle, Washington
Staff
SUSAN ROBERTS, Director
STACEE KARRAS, Senior Program Officer
KELLY OSKVIG, Senior Program Officer
EMILY TWIGG, Senior Program Officer
MEGAN MAY, Associate Program Officer (until January 2022)
ALEXANDRA SKRIVANEK, Associate Program Officer (until February 2022)
VANESSA CONSTANT, Associate Program Officer
SHELLY-ANN FREELAND, Finance Business Partner (until January 2022)
THANH NGUYEN, Finance Business Partner
KENZA SIDI-ALI-CHERIF, Senior Program Assistant (until April 2022)
ELIZABETH COSTA, Program Assistant
GRACE CALLAHAN, Program Assistant
BOARD ON ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AND TOXICOLOGY
Members
FRANK W. DAVIS (Chair), University of California, Santa Barbara
ANN M. BARTUSKA, U.S. Department of Agriculture (retired), Washington, District of Columbia
DANA BOYD BARR, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
GERMAINE M. BUCK LOUIS, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
FRANCESCA DOMINICI, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
GEORGE GRAY, The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia
R. JEFFREY LEWIS, ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc., Annandale, New Jersey
LINSEY C. MARR, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg
MARIE LYNN MIRANDA, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
R. CRAIG POSTLEWAITE, U.S. Department of Defense, Burke, Virginia
REZA J. RASOULPOUR, Corteva Agriscience, Indianapolis, Indiana
JOSHUA TEWKSBURY, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panamá
SACOBY M. WILSON, University of Maryland, College Park
TRACEY JEAN WOODRUFF, University of California, San Francisco
Staff
CLIFFORD S. DUKE, Director
RAYMOND A. WASSEL, Scholar and Director of Environmental Studies
KATHRYN GUYTON, Senior Program Officer
NATALIE ARMSTRONG, Associate Program Officer
LAURA LLANOS, Finance Business Partner
LESLIE BEAUCHAMP, Program Assistant
THOMASINA LYLES, Program Assistant
BOARD ON HEALTH SCIENCES POLICY
Members1
SHARON TERRY (Chair), Genetic Alliance
DAVID BLAZES, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
ROBERT CALIFF, Duke University, Verily Life Sciences
ARAVINDA CHAKRAVARTI, New York University Langone Health
LINDA HAWES CLEVER, California Pacific Medical Center; RENEW
BARRY S. COLLER, The Rockefeller University
BERNARD A. HARRIS, JR., Vesalius Ventures
MARTHA N. HILL, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
FRANCES E. JENSEN, Medicine Translational Neuroscience Center, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
STORY C. LANDIS, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (Emerita)
FRANK R. LIN, Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health
SUZET M. McKINNEY, Sterling Bay
LYNNE D. RICHARDSON, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System
DIETRAM SCHEUFELE, University of Wisconsin–Madison
UMAIR A. SHAH, Harris County Public Health
ROBYN I. STONE, LeadingAge
MATHEW WYNIA, University of Colorado Denver
Study Staff
CLARE STROUD, Senior Director (from July 2022)
ANDREW M. POPE, Senior Director (until July 2022)
CAROLYN SHORE, Senior Program Officer
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1 Roster reflects membership and affiliations in 2021.
Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Although the reviewers provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by JUDITH E. McDOWELL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and DANNY D. REIBLE (NAE), Texas Tech University. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
Preface
It is now broadly recognized that aquatic environments—both marine and fresh water—have undergone substantial degradation over recent decades and remain under threat. Global and local stressors combine to alter and degrade the condition of these vital ecosystems. The recent National Academies consensus study on Interventions to Increase the Resilience of Coral Reefs1 is one example that highlighted the immense threat from global climate change to coral reefs, and described how local conditions, among other things, can influence reef resilience to this global-scale threat.
Without a doubt, a variety of compounds present in the mixture of chemical pollution entering our environments are a contributing cause of ecological decline. An emerging target of possible concern has been ultraviolet (UV) filters, which notably comprise the “active” ingredients in sunscreens. This collection of slightly over a dozen diverse compounds can be carried into the water on human skin when used to protect the skin from injury from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. In addition, these compounds can enter waterways with the wide array of other chemicals in our wastewater. It was to better understand the potential risk of UV filters on our already threatened aquatic environments, and the potential consequence to human health should sunscreen usage or composition be modified, that the National Academies was tasked by Congress and funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undertake this consensus study.
Addressing environmental and human health issues increasingly involves holistic thinking and approaches that integrate human and ecological considerations. All consensus panels of the National Academies are comprised of teams of scientists representing the scope of expertise needed to address complex questions and the range of differing perspectives when alternative approaches to those questions have been articulated. The demands of this task stretched the typical bounds of even that norm: On the one hand, we needed experts in the many disciplines pertinent to environmental assessment in aquatic environments of all types. On the other hand, we needed expertise in dermatology, cancer prevention, behavioral science, and human epidemiology. We were challenged in our work by the COVID-19 pandemic, which precluded the face-to-face interactions that most readily facilitate such diverse groups to coalesce around the statement of task, and fully realize the potential of team science. Using our first sessions to fact-find with invited guests from around the world—perhaps the one advantage of Zoom!—to present both evidence and perspectives, we tiptoed our way into the water. We were then faced with integrating several workstreams into a coherent narrative with all of its supporting data. While challenging, our work showed
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1 See https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/interventions-to-increase-the-resilience-of-coral-reefs.
that this was possible, with concerted effort to reach a shared understanding. Especially important to achieving our goals were ongoing and indepth exchanges concerning the applicability, strengths, and limitations of the underlying science relevant to the task.
In the end, we have met the challenge set forth by the statement of task, and are pleased to present it to EPA and to the public. Of course, this would have been impossible without the incredible efforts of our staff team—led by Emily Twigg and Vanessa Constant—as well as the support of the staff and leadership of the National Academies, more broadly. We are worn out after this 18-month journey, but also proud to present the pages that follow, with the hope—indeed, expectation—that they will accelerate the effort to meet the dual goals: safety to the environment and protecting humans from the noxious effects of the sun.
Charles A. Menzie, Chair
Mark R. Cullen, Vice-Chair
Committee on Environmental Impact of Currently Marketed
Sunscreens and Potential Human Impacts of Changes in Sunscreen Usage
Acknowledgments
This report was greatly enhanced by a number of public information-gathering meetings during the study process. The committee would like to thank all of the experts who presented during these meetings: Eric Adams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Adewole Adamson, The University of Texas at Austin; Tom Augspurger, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Larry Barber, U.S. Geological Survey; Tim Bargar, U.S. Geological Survey; Lisa Bishop, Friends of Hanauma Bay; Lee Blaney, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Autumn Blum, Stream-2Sea; Narrissa Brown, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Emily Burns, Personal Care Products Council; Annaleise Conway, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences; Michael Cummings, Hawaii Department of Health; Iain Davies, Personal Care Products Council; Scott Dyer, LeTourneau University; Michelle Embry, Health and Environmental Sciences Institute; Michael Gonsior, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science; Adele Green, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute; Patricia Holden, University of California, Santa Barbara; Dawn Holman, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Kurunthachalam Kannan, NYU Langone Health; Michael Kaplan, Melanoma Research Alliance; Arturo Keller, University of California, Santa Barbara; Marc Léonard, L’Oréal Advanced Research; Len Lichtenfeld, American Cancer Society (Retired); Henry Lim, Henry Ford Health Center; Germaine Buck Louis, George Mason University; Rebecca Luria, Hawaii Dermatological Society; Natasha Atanaskova Mesinkovska, University of California, Irvine; Theresa Michele, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Jennifer Moore, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Erinn Muller, Mote Marine Laboratory; Andrew Negri, Australian Institute of Marine Science; Elissa O’Malley, PhD from University of Queensland; Joan Oppenheimer, Stantec; Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Frank Perna, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health; João Pestana, Universidade de Aveiro; Véronique Poulsen, L’Oréal Environmental Safety; Sandy Raimondo, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Abigail Renegar, Nova Southeastern University; Kurt Reynertson, Johnson & Johnson; Dietram Scheufele, University of Wisconsin–Madison; Daniel Schlenk, University of California, Riverside; Craig Sinclair, Cancer Council Victoria; Suzanne van Drunick, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Shuai Xu, Northwestern University.
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Contents
Regulation of Sunscreens in the United States
Data Quality Assessment in Decision Making
2 INTRODUCTION TO SUNSCREENS AND THEIR UV FILTERS
Physical and Chemical Profiles
Modes of Action for Skin Protection
UV Filters in Sunscreen Formulations
Inventory and Uses of UV Filters
3 PROBLEM FORMULATION: SOURCES, SETTINGS, AND ECOLOGICAL RECEPTORS
Sources and Inputs of UV Filters into the Environment
Environmental Settings and Routes of UV Filter Exposure
Ecological Receptors and Ecosystem Services
4 FATE, TRANSPORT, AND POTENTIAL EXPOSURE IN THE ENVIRONMENT
How Exposure Information Is Used in Ecological Risk Assessment
Fate Characteristics of UV Filters
Physical Factors and Spatial Relationships
Estimated and Measured Concentrations in Water and Sediments
5 BIOACCUMULATION AND MEASURED CONCENTRATIONS OF UV FILTERS IN BIOTA
How Bioaccumulation Information Is Used in Risk Assessment
Exposure Beyond Aquatic Ecosystems
6 REVIEW OF STUDIES ON THE EFFECTS OF UV FILTERS IN AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS
How Effects Information Is Used in Ecological Risk Assessments
Committee Approach to Toxicity Data Relevance and Reliability for ERA
Investigations on the Toxicity of Organic UV Filters to Aquatic Organisms
Investigations on the Toxicity of Inorganic UV Filters to Aquatic Organisms
Syntheses of UV Filter Toxicity Data
Studies Informing Mode(s) of Action
Potential for Effects on Threatened and Endangered Species
Community and Ecosystem Effects
Effects of UV Filters in the Context of Multiple Stressors
Ultraviolet Radiation and Skin Damage
Sunscreen Efficacy, Safety, and Use
Correlates of Sunscreen Use and Changes in Sunscreen Use
Potential Changes to Sunscreen Use and the Human Health Consequences
8 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of Information on Each UV Filter
Managing Human and Environmental Health
A Committee Member Biographies
C UV Filter Water and Sediment Occurrence Data
D Supplementary Information for Bioaccumulation
E UV Filter Toxicity Data Tables
F Studies on Behavioral and Physiological Endpoints on Select Organic UV Filters