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It's how you select, formulate, and bond the ingredients in the formula. The Reef Safe chemist tried 3 different manufacturers of certain key ingredients before choosing the one being used- and he will not divulge the name of the company. The formula is complicated and proprietary but, for example, most sunscreens are manufactured in a 3 step process. Reef Safe takes 7 steps. The process was arrived at over a period of time with experiments and testing to develop the best formula and process that will not damage marine life. The tests from Mote simply validate the work.
Maybe so. Reef Safe may be great. But aren't you also saying that there is no problem with all those other products that contain Oxybenzone?
 
Maybe so. Reef Safe may be great. But aren't you also saying that there is no problem with all those other products that contain Oxybenzone?

not necessarily. With some black magic in chemistry you can get the oxybenzone to basically live "inside" of a compound where it will become soluble which is why you don't see an oil slick when using Reef Safe. With most other screens you do see that oil slick and that will eventually sink and coat whatever it falls onto.

Part of the problem with oxybenzone is that most of the studies have been using non-realistic studies. I.e. 100% concentrations of it that has been solubilized with a solvent that is also damaging to coral. That study is completely useless because you'll never have oxybenzone solubilized with that chemical, nor will you ever have that much oxybenzone in the environment because of FDA limitations on how much you can put inside of sunscreen. That was done as a marketing stunt to demonize oxybenzone to help push some specific products.
Reef-Safe then did their study to show that the differences in coral toxicity between their product with and without oxybenzone is indistinguishable. That said, the PR from the study obviously would hurt their original formula because most consumers are uneducated even though they think they are experts so an oxybenzone-free formula was released to not alienate those customers.

If you buy into that hype, then they have an oxybenzone free formula, if you don't, then you can go with the OG stuff
 
I'm not sure that I understand the difference between a study and an experiment. It boils down to how they executed the experiment, IE controls. They've done that and with the 30x possible concentrations. I went to the factory and got the cook's tour. I was impressed. Impressed with their fastidious attention to quality control. from when they get the ingredients to when it finally gets packed and shipped. Imagine my surprise to see "QUARANTINE" on their incoming shipments. Only to find out that they won't use them until they have been analyzed and tested. They don't play around. @tursiops the idea of putting that article as a sticky and closing it was mine. You're more than free to discuss it, but that needed to stand on its own. No one is forcing anyone to read it. Some of their competitors have really distorted the issue of ingredients, so I think it's important to have it out there. Mote is a big name in oceanic research. I certainly don't have an issue with their science.
 
not necessarily. With some black magic in chemistry you can get the oxybenzone to basically live "inside" of a compound where it will become soluble which is why you don't see an oil slick when using Reef Safe. With most other screens you do see that oil slick and that will eventually sink and coat whatever it falls onto.

Part of the problem with oxybenzone is that most of the studies have been using non-realistic studies. I.e. 100% concentrations of it that has been solubilized with a solvent that is also damaging to coral. That study is completely useless because you'll never have oxybenzone solubilized with that chemical, nor will you ever have that much oxybenzone in the environment because of FDA limitations on how much you can put inside of sunscreen. That was done as a marketing stunt to demonize oxybenzone to help push some specific products.
Reef-Safe then did their study to show that the differences in coral toxicity between their product with and without oxybenzone is indistinguishable. That said, the PR from the study obviously would hurt their original formula because most consumers are uneducated even though they think they are experts so an oxybenzone-free formula was released to not alienate those customers.

If you buy into that hype, then they have an oxybenzone free formula, if you don't, then you can go with the OG stuff

Thank you. Great explanation!
 
Tropical-Seas-Reef-Safe-Sun-Headquarters.jpg
The Tropical Seas Reef Safe Sun Factory and Headquarters is based in Holly Hill, Florida and we welcome visitors! In case you can't stop by here's an article about who we are and what we do.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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