Chemical (organic) UV filterReef research: Some concern

Octocrylene

Widely used to stabilize avobenzone. Hawaii's legislature has tried to add it to the statewide ban (SB 132 in 2021, SB 748 in 2024), but both bills died.

Banned in

U.S. Virgin Islands
Palau
Guam

Also excluded where only mineral sunscreen is allowed

Maui County
Hawaiʻi County

Is Octocrylene safe for your skin?

The US FDA lists it among 12 filters that need more data, which it says is not a finding that they are unsafe. The separate finding is benzophenone, a hazardous impurity that is present in octocrylene sunscreens and rose with time and temperature in lab testing; EU rules require it to be kept at trace level.

FDA: octocrylene is one of 12 US sunscreen filters the 2021 proposed order classes as lacking enough data to be called safe and effective. FDA says this is not a conclusion that they are unsafe.
Absorption: in a randomized trial (Matta et al., JAMA 2020), octocrylene peaked at 7.8 ng/mL after lotion and 6.6 ng/mL after aerosol spray, above the 0.5 ng/mL level at which FDA guidance asks for more toxicology studies, and the level was passed after a single application on day 1. The authors said the results do not mean people should stop using sunscreen.
EU: the SCCS (opinion adopted March 2021) found octocrylene safe at up to 10% in cosmetics used individually, but not at 10% or above in propellant sprays when combined with other products, so the EU cut the spray limit to 9% (Regulation 2022/1176). The SCCS saw some signs of endocrine effects in some in vivo studies but said the evidence was not strong enough to set a limit based on them.
Benzophenone: Downs et al. (2021) found benzophenone in sixteen octocrylene sunscreens at 6 to 186 mg/kg when new and 9.8 to 435 mg/kg after six weeks of simulated aging, and also in the pure octocrylene ingredient. Foubert et al. (2021) found it in all 28 octocrylene products tested, rising with time and temperature. The SCCS calls benzophenone a hazardous impurity and degradation product to be kept at trace levels. Both studies measured benzophenone levels in the products.
Skin reactions: the SCCS says reported contact allergy cases are negligible given how widely octocrylene is used, and that photoallergy is strongly linked to earlier photoallergy to topical ketoprofen.

Sources (7)

Last reviewed October 14, 2026. This summarises what regulators and published studies found. It isn't medical advice.

Where it’s restricted

Named in the law or guidance

Location	Status	Since
U.S. Virgin Islands law text ↗	In force	March 30, 2020
Palau law text ↗	In force	January 1, 2020
Guam law text ↗	In force	October 9, 2025

Also not allowed under mineral-only rules

Octocrylene isn’t named in these laws, but they allow only mineral (zinc oxide or titanium dioxide) sunscreens, so a product containing it is excluded anyway.

Maui County (Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi) (in force since October 1, 2022)
Hawaiʻi County (Big Island) (in force since December 1, 2022)

Why it’s regulated

The US Virgin Islands (Act 8185, signed July 2019) bans selling or distributing sunscreens containing it from March 30, 2020, and Guam's Public Law 38-5 (signed April 12, 2025) bans importing products that contain it, with the ban taking effect 180 days after enactment. These laws cite harm to coral and other marine life.

What the reef research says

In the main coral study, Stien et al. (2019) exposed adult Pocillopora damicornis to octocrylene at 5, 50, 300 and 1,000 µg/L, and most polyps were closed at 300 µg/L and above. The coral turned octocrylene into fatty-acid conjugates that built up in its tissue and showed higher levels of 15 acylcarnitines, which the authors link to abnormal fatty-acid metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction; a 2022 follow-up found the same pattern in a second species, Stylophora pistillata. A 2025 lab study on Symbiodinium, the alga that lives inside corals, found octocrylene less toxic than octinoxate, with cell viability and metabolic activity affected at the higher concentrations. For scale, the lowest concentration in the coral study was 5 µg/L, while a 2025 review reports a geometric mean of 37 ng/L (0.037 µg/L) in marine surface water at recreational sites, and notes that sampling methods differed widely between studies. Stien et al. caution that field measurements may be large underestimates, because octocrylene is converted into other forms in the organism. The National Academies (2022) found enough data to build acute risk curves only for oxybenzone, octinoxate, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide; octocrylene was not on that list.

Sources (10)