KAILUA-KONA — United States Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, presidential hopeful and representative of Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, introduced on Thursday the Oxybenzone and Octinoxate Impact Study Act of 2019 and the Reef Safe Act of 2019.
The former mandates the Environmental Protection Agency conduct research on how oxybenzone and octinoxate affect humans and the environment. United States Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) introduced the same legislation in the Senate a day prior.
The latter of Gabbard’s measures calls on the Food and Drug Administration to develop standards defining the term “reef safe” for nonprescription sunscreens, a release from her office stated.
“The ingredients in many common sunscreens are chemicals that have been proven to kill coral reef, harm marine life, and raise serious concerns about the impact they may have on people who use them,” Gabbard said in the release. “While proper skin protection is extremely important, we must make sure the ingredients used are safe for people and not jeopardizing the coral reef vital to local marine habitats and that help reduce coastal flood risk.”
Gabbard’s legislation comes one year after the Hawaii Legislature passed a bill banning the in-state sale of all sunscreens containing oxybenzone or octinoxate. That measure was sponsored by her father, state Sen. Mike Gabbard (D-Oahu), and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
The national legislation, if passed, could bolster Hawaii’s efforts to protect its reefs from harmful sunscreen chemicals by disseminating information about the threats they pose to a vaster audience.
“I think it will really raise the profile with what we passed last year in Hawaii,” Sen. Mike Gabbard said of his daughter’s and Hirono’s proposed measures.
Key West, Palau, Bonaire and Aruba have all enacted similar sunscreen laws since Hawaii’s legislative work in 2018. But perhaps more crucial than just inspiring governmental action is fostering an element of public awareness.
State law will not prohibit tourists bringing sunscreen with them to Hawaii. There won’t be beach checks to make sure ocean goers are using only reef safe products, Sen. Gabbard said. Thus, the effectiveness of the law will depend significantly on how many people, both residents and visitors, are aware of the dangers of some sunscreen chemicals, as well as how many care to actually do anything about it.
Hawaiian Airlines has handed out reef safe products to passengers on its flights and the hotel industry has also engaged in educational campaigns to let visitors know what products the state prefer they purchase, Sen. Gabbard said.
Beyond what an impact study could accomplish, a uniform definition of the term “reef safe” will add regulation to the marketing of different sunscreen brands in Hawaii before the ban takes effect in 2021, as well as on the mainland following that time.
Aloha Kakou, and Mahalos to Kauai Representative Tulsi and Kauai’s Senator Mazie for introducing sane necessary ecological sound important legislation to protect our reefs and even beyond that.
But when will the day come when humans will become as important, and all of the above and more, as coral reefs.
This legislation would not be a moment too soon if the word REEF was replaced by the word PEOPLE.
If the word SUNSCREEN was replaced by the word Food.
If the words OXYBENZONE and OCTINOXATE were replaced by the words PETROCHEMICALS and other MANMADE CHEMICALS.
It’s quite a coincidence that the 2 words OXYBENZONE and OCTINOXATE are so similar to the epidemic overdose lethal drugs OXYCODONE and OXYCONTIN. These 2 words have come to reperesent death and they are prescribed recklessly by our doctors.
Eliminating PETROCHEMICALS and other MANMADE CHEMICALS from our food supply would be a Great Leap Forward in the diminishment of much of the chronic diseases plagueing society today.
Adding to that…well that’s a “Freudian slip”, we should say SUBTRACTING from that, the food endemic epidemic ubiquitous food additive called “sugar”, an over used and over dosed drug, really, seemingly harmless as it is from plant based “mother foods”, such as our former Hawaii sugar cane, as well as sugar beets, corn, and almost 60 other sources of manufactured sugar, put in food providing no nutritional value, and are empty calories, fulfilling no nutritional purpose but instead “feeding” obesity and diabetes, and perpetuating a shortened life long DRUG managed medical disease care treatment…all the while ignoring the causes of disease.
And here while we put our complete faith in our doctors and hospitals and the drugs they prescribe, that 80% of us take daily, the very Faith that we have in them, that Is called BLIND FAITH, because we all have been taught so little about our bodies in all of our years of schooling, instead trusting in all of our care givers, those that manage all disease in America. Manage and perpetuate by drug therapy, instead of removing and or avoiding the causes of disease.
And while we are at it, we put that same trust in the manufacturers of the majority of the foods we eat…trusting those who are focused on profit instead of our best interests…HEALTH.
We have effectively let it go on for so many years, decades, generations, more than a century, that we’re in a Rut so deep we cannot even see out of it.
Blindly allowing profit based industry to do what we should have been doing without letup…over the generations…bringing the FOOD FROM FARM TO DINNER TABLE, instead we have been letting the food be detoured, if not hijacked, off to some manufacturing plant (and they still call it food) that is thousands of miles away from our kitchen tables and safety.
The more phoney and chemicalyzed, and sugar loaded the food has become the more chronic degenerative killer diseases are sweeping our country and forcing our people out of ignorance to accept drug treatments and surgeries when the cause of much of it is staring us in the face…all this time..
IT’S THE FOOD…WELL, It’s the non-Food they are putting on our grocery store shelves, and with complete blind Faith and ignorance our people are consuming it, and let’s not forget the chemicals we put on our food while it is still on the farm and out in the fields.
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Food that is more chemicals than food, and Drugs for Treatment instead of removing the causes of diseases…DON’T we deserve better…!
Isn’t it time to make America…OF, BY, AND FOR THE PEOPLE AGAIN…instead of…OF, BY, AND FOR THE CORPORATIONS…?
Tulsi and Mazie, it’s time you helped us by putting the real and safe food back on the shelves, and making people more important, or at least equal to Coral Reefs and other endangered species.
Mahalo
Charles
Tulsi introduced her H.R. 3671 OFF Fossil Fuels Act in 9/2017. It’s a BILL which is BINDING. It has 46 cosponsors and has been endorsed by more than 400 national, state & local organizations, including Progressive Democrats of America, Climate Justice Alliance, Food and Water Watch, People’s Action Institute, etc. You can read the BILL at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3671