Well, that’s interesting; there’s several things that conflict with my prior information. Time to look into it further; thanks for sharing.

thinks back to college chem lab classes and MSDSes why would anyone put benzene in sunscreen

Anyway, for reference here’s the paragraph from the article about the harmful substance:

When people say chemical sunscreens are unsafe or “toxic,” they generally point to a 2001 study that found some risks associated with oxybenzone after scientists put high levels of the ingredient in drinking water for rats. But a followup study in 2016 found that for humans to get to similar risky exposure levels they’d have to apply full-body daily sunscreen for 227 years.

Meanwhile, I’ve noticed that mineral sunscreens (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide) are reportedly considered “reef safe”: https://savethereef.org/about-reef-save-sunscreen.html

And they aren’t the substances that are cited for toxicity/carcinogenicity. So, based on the available information (correct me if I’m wrong, of course!), it seems that they’re the best choice.

Also I’ve heard that mineral sunscreens work by reflecting sunlight rather than absorbing it and dissipating it as a different form of energy (I forget whether that’s heat or chemical change) so that might also be useful in other ways. But I am not an expert.

EDIT: see later replies to this post for more information to consider

Ah, I see. So, basically a “less bad” alternative for people who have nicotine dependency?

why do these even exist

Good gosh I’ve always hated how I often can’t reuse packaging material and/or containers for something else. I would want to but (1) I get too many of them, (2) they’re sometimes too dirty (for various reasons) to be able to reuse easily, and (3) even if I could come up with ways to reuse them I’d also have to convince people I live with.

We need to reduce the amount of stuff from further upstream, rather than just having consumers try to do all the three R’s by themselves.