防晒霜对某些海洋生物有害

The sweet and salty aroma¹（芳香） of sunscreen and seawater signals a relaxing trip to the shore. But scientists are now reporting that the idyllic²（悠闲的） beach vacation comes with an environmental hitch ³. When certain sunblock ingredients wash off skin and into the sea, they can become toxic ⁴ to some of the ocean's tiniest inhabitants, which are the main course for many other marine ⁵ animals. Their study appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Antonio Tovar-Sanchez and David Sánchez-Quiles point out that other than staying indoors, slathering on sunscreen is currently the best way to protect skin from the sun's harmful rays. But when sunbathers splash into the ocean to cool off, some of their lotions ⁶ and creams get rinsed⁷（冲洗） into the water. The problem is that titanium dioxide and zinc ⁹ oxide ⁸ nanoparticles, which are common ingredients in sunblock, can react with ultraviolet light from the sun and form new compounds, such as hydrogen peroxide, that could be toxic., ,High amounts of hydrogen peroxide can harm phytoplankton（浮游植物）, the microscopic ¹⁰ algae ¹¹ that feed everything from small fish to shrimp ¹² to whales. The scientists wanted to figure out just how serious of an impact beachgoers could be having on life in coastal ¹³ waters., ,To investigate the matter, they hit the beach. They went to Majorca Island's Palmira beach on the Mediterranean ¹⁴ along with about 10,000 beachgoers, a small portion of the more than 200 million tourists that flock to Mediterranean shores every year. Based on lab tests, seawater sampling and tourism data, the researchers concluded that titanium dioxide from sunblock was largely responsible for a dramatic summertime spike ¹⁵ in hydrogen peroxide levels in coastal waters -- with potentially dangerous consequences for aquatic ¹⁶ life.