#maui sunscreen ban

The Maui Visitors and Convention Bureau has partnered with Raw Elements to provide 20 mineral-only sunscreen dispensers at high traffic beaches in Maui County.

Effective this Saturday, Oct. 1, only mineral sunscreens with active ingredients zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are allowed for sale, distribution or use without a prescription.

On Oct. 1, the Project Reef Team plans to visit the shorelines of Maui’s most popular beaches and offer to ‘swap’ any chemical sunscreen being used with a product of their reef-safe, mineral only products. 

Maui County’s ban on the sale, use or distribution of nonmineral sunscreens without a prescription issued by a licensed healthcare provider, takes effect on Oct. 1, 2022.

“With only one month until the new law goes into effect, we continue to educate our visitors and community about their sunscreen options and the positive impact they can have on our marine environments,” Maui Ocean Center’s General Manager Tapani Vuori said.

Maui Ocean Center’s gift store has installed mineral-based sunscreen dispensers to celebrate June’s National Oceans Month, World Reef Day, and the county-wide chemical sunscreen ban that takes effect on Oct. 1, 2022.

Four mineral sunblock dispensers are now installed along south Maui shores. Two are at the ‘Āhihi-Kīna‘u  Natural Area Reserve and a pair are to be installed at Mākena State Park where thousands of people enter the ocean at these locations daily.