Abstract
Sunscreen is released into the marine environment and is considered toxic for marine life. The current analytical methods for the quantification of sunscreen are mostly specific to individual chemical ingredients and based on complex analytical and instrumental techniques. A simple, selective, rapid, reproducible and low-cost spectrophotometric procedure for the quantification of commercial sunscreen in seawater is described here. The method is based on the inherent properties of these cosmetics to absorb in the wavelength of 300–400 nm. The absorption at 303 nm wavelength correlates with the concentration of most commercial sunscreens. This method allows the determination of sunscreens in the range of 2.5–1500 mg L-1, it requires no sample pretreatment and offers a precision of up to 0.2%. The spectrophotometric method was applied to quantify sunscreen concentrations at an Atlantic Beach with values ranging from 10 to 96.7 mg L-1 in the unfiltered fraction and from the undetectable value to 75.7 mg L-1 in the dissolved fraction. This method is suggested as a tool for sunscreen quantifications in environmental investigations and monitoring programs.
Highlights
Among the many chemicals and emerging pollutants used by modern society, the marine environmental impacts of sunscreen products have attracted scientific and social attention in the past few years [1]
Cosmetic companies flood the market with new sunscreens with different formulations and rheology
Each company uses its own formulation to do this using different kinds and quantities of organic and/or inorganic UV filters are added in order to block a specific range of UV radiation
Summary
Among the many chemicals and emerging pollutants used by modern society, the marine environmental impacts of sunscreen products have attracted scientific and social attention in the past few years [1]. Cosmetic companies flood the market with new sunscreens with different formulations and rheology (e.g. creams, oils, sprays, etc.). Sunscreens are a cocktail of chemicals that, when applied on our skin, protect against the harmful effects of the radiation of the sun. In addition to emollients, emulsifiers, perfumes, and many other chemicals, they include UV filters (organic and inorganic) as active components that absorb, reflect or scatter UV radiation in the range of 400–320 nm (UVA) and/or 320–280 nm (UVB) [2]. There are around 50 organic UV-filters (e.g. derivatives of benzophenone, camphor, p-aminobenzoic acid, etc.), and 2 inorganic UV-filters (TiO2 and ZnO), allowed in sunscreen formulations [2, 3] by different legislations.
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