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Occurrence and Ecological Risk of Sunscreen-Derived Metallic and Plastic Particles in Marine Environments
Summary
When you swim at the beach after applying sunscreen, tiny particles from it—like zinc oxide and titanium dioxide, plus microplastics—wash off into the ocean, and this review pulls together existing research showing these particles build up more heavily near popular tourist beaches. At the levels found in real coastal waters, these particles can harm marine life by causing physical damage and cellular stress, and some beaches now show medium-to-high risk levels; while this study focuses on ocean ecosystems rather than direct human health effects, it's a reminder that what we put on our skin doesn't just disappear—it enters the food chain and marine
Sunscreens are extensively applied to protect human skin from ultraviolet radiation, leading to a substantial rise in the release of sunscreen-derived particles into marine environments. These particles, including metallic nanoparticles (e.g., nanosized zinc oxide, nZnO; nanosized titanium dioxide, nTiO2) and plastic particles (e.g., micro- and nano-plastics, MNPs), are considered emerging contaminants after releasing into marine environment, raising growing concerns regarding their risk to both marine environment and human health. Therefore, this work focuses on these sunscreen-derived particles, and comprehensively reviews their extraction and detection approaches, occurrence, toxicity and ecological risk in marine environments. First, the extraction and detection approaches toward these particles from both original sunscreens and natural samples (e.g., seawater and sediment) are summarized. Based on these approaches, the occurrence of sunscreen-derived particles, primarily nZnO (11.2–14.8 μg/L) and nTiO2 (6.0–903.1 μg/L), in coastal waters were summarized, which exhibit a significant correlation with tourist activities. Under environmentally relevant concentrations, these particles exhibit significant toxicity (e.g., physical damage and oxidative stress) after being attached or ingested by marine organisms. Based on the calculated risk characterization ratios, both nZnO and nTiO2 exhibit medium/high risk in some coastal beaches. Additionally, the transformation of sunscreen-derived particles occurs in marine environment, and its role in the toxicity of these particles were further analyzed. Finally, research challenges toward these sunscreen-derived particles are pointed out. This review provides a better understanding of ecological risk of sunscreen-derived metallic and plastic particles in marine environments.