Thailand bans sunscreen in its national parks

[webfact]

File photo for reference only

 

Thailand on Wednesday announced a ban on sunscreen in its national parks.

 

The move is aimed at helping to limit damage to coral reefs.

 

The ban on sunscreen has been published in the Royal Gazette, confirming it to law.

 

Anyone who violates the sunscreen ban faces a fine of up to 100,000 baht, the announcement said. 

 

The Department of National Parks said the law was passed as sunscreen had been found to be damaging to coral reefs and marine life.

 

The ban affects all sunscreens which include the chemicals Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, 4-Methylbenzyl and Butylparaben.

 

The ban on wearing sunscreen in national parks is effective immediately.

 

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[Mac Mickmanus]

Does this also include National Parks in the Northern Mountains where you cannot even see the sea from the top of the Mountain ?

[Shuya]

So the holiday in Thailand now comes with Covid AND skin cancer. Nice. 

[sherwood]

That's my LoL moment for the day taken care of.

Killing people by Covid is not enough for this mob,  need to add a dose of sun cancer to the melting pot. 

[thaitom]

Showers will be installed at the Entrance of all parks

[utalkin2me]

Does it hurt the coral more than dropping anchors on it?

[worgeordie]

Don't tell the tourists about it, when ,if  they ever return,

You touched a starfish, while smoking on the beach, and

you have put sun screen on.... that will be 300,000 THB Please.

regards worgeordie

 

[ThailandRyan]

Well you will now see women as they are without makeup since most makeups and face creams have some type of sunscreen additive in them. Funny how they get all made up to take photos out in the water and on the beach.

[keith101]

21 minutes ago, webfact said:

The ban on sunscreen has been published in the Royal Gazette, confirming it to law.

I hope there is some provision for people to sue the Government if they some how get skin cancer because it is against the law to use the protective sun screen .

[spidermike007]

Not even a concern on any level. Why? How long have you lived here? How often have we seen declarations like this? This current administration is infamous for pledges, declarations, proclamations, silly laws, and promises. Few are even remembered, much less followed up upon two weeks later.
 
Feel free to cite some environmental promises that were followed up on, if you can. Otherwise, this is just a pedantic high school level attempt to appear as if they care about the environment, passed by men with a staggering level of incompetence and indifference toward their land, water and the common man. Means less than zero.

 

And what about the rest of the environment? The government should offer incentives, for the farmers to switch crops. This is 2021. Rice and sugar worked in previous centuries. Now, they do not make any sense. Too labor intensive, too much degradation of the land, water, air, and resources. Let's get with the times. Let us move forward. 

 

Then they can move on to tackle the sale of diesel vehicles, and the government's enthusiastic support of such. It is inane in this day and age. Most nations are moving away from diesel for good reasons. When they are not well maintained, they foul the air, with large, nasty particles. And who properly maintains their vehicle here? A while back they had a campaign similar where they had posters with phone numbers that you could call to report vehicles that were polluting. We were driving and we saw this truck that was pumping out huge black clouds of smoke and I copied down their license plate and I dialed the number, and handed my phone to my Thai wife and asked her speak to the department. She asked the person who answered the phone what can they do? He asked my wife why are you calling us and she said, well you have phone numbers posted to report polluting vehicles? The guy said well I don't know who I would report it to, or what they could do about it! She said well that's not really our issue is it? You're supposed to be monitoring polluting vehicles. He said OK, give me the license plate number and I'll see what I can do. My wife said are you going to do anything? He said, I don't know I need to look at the regulations first and see who I'm supposed to report it to, and then maybe somebody will do something.

Lastly they can convert all of the 10 remaining diesel and coal fired power plants. Thailand has already done a very admirable job with renewable power plants. There are over 50 powered by hydro, geothermal, wind, solar and biomass. That is impressive. 
 

[geovalin]

Hawaii and a lot of other islands / states in Pacific Ocean but also Mexico took the same measure.

Others will follow.

This is a good decision.

Bravo

[Bluespunk]

It’s the chemicals in some sunscreens that damage reefs. There are reef friendly sunscreens available that do not contain those chemicals. 

[GroveHillWanderer]

5 minutes ago, keith101 said:

I hope there is some provision for people to sue the Government if they some how get skin cancer because it is against the law to use the protective sun screen .

They can use sunscreen, just not the ones that contain the specifically-named, banned chemicals. There are other sunscreens that do not contain these chemicals and which are OK to use.

[internationalism]

chance for tanaka powder (sandalwood bark) to get back to it's previous glory. It's also cheap, has anti-fungal properties.

[RJRS1301]

There are some nasty chemicals in some of insect replellants available on the market, will these be also banned?

 

[mfd101]

30 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

It’s the chemicals in some sunscreens that damage reefs. There are reef friendly sunscreens available that do not contain those chemicals. 

In which case it would be more effective for the government to ban the SALE in Thailand of the offending cosmetics.

[smedly]

would it not be easier to ban the sale of the offending products that contain the listed chemicals including makeup and whitening products

[Boomer6969]

Once more this will only affect white skinned tourists, those they try to eliminate from the "Land of the free" [AHs].

[ArcticFox]

Sounds like a way to extract large sums of money from light-skinned tourists. 

Really folks.  It's time to dump Thailand from your list of places to vacation.  This one's over the top.  Two hours fully exposed in the summer sun and most farang are well on their way to second-degree burns.

[ArcticFox]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The ban affects all sunscreens which include the chemicals Oxybenzone, Octinoxate, 4-Methylbenzyl and Butylparaben.

Then ban the sale of products with those chemicals. 

[Rampant Rabbit]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Anyone who violates the sunscreen ban faces a fine of up to 100,000 baht, the announcement said. 

Surely  death by firing squad  also?

[darksidedog]

Crazy to do this without identifying the offending brand names, because you can guarantee a Thai police officer or other official will want to arrest and fleece you for having any sunscreen and good luck convincing him your one is on the green list.

[samtam]

14 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Crazy to do this without identifying the offending brand names, because you can guarantee a Thai police officer or other official will want to arrest and fleece you for having any sunscreen and good luck convincing him your one is on the green list.

Exactly how are they going to enforce this ban?

[Destiny1990]

This can potentially generate more income then these jetski scams.????

[Gottfrid]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The ban on wearing sunscreen in national parks is effective immediately.

You are no longer free to protect yourself against skin cancer.

[OneMoreFarang]

Good idea. The result will hopefully be more of this:

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

Well you will now see women as they are without makeup since most makeups and face creams have some type of sunscreen additive in them. Funny how they get all made up to take photos out in the water and on the beach.

Actually you make a good point..... sunscreens are very popular with the locals, with whitening agents too.... girls and boys.

[jvs]

20 minutes ago, samtam said:

Exactly how are they going to enforce this ban?

They are going to enforce this ban the same way they enforce other bans.

Nothing will happen.

[jacko45k]

Just now, jvs said:

They are going to enforce this ban the same way they enforce other bans.

Nothing will happen.

Opportunism.... like catching people discarding cigarette butts in Asok.

[Orinoco]

Well done Thailand.

The only thing left to do,  is to tell the tourists to

p-iss off, direct to there faces at the airport.