Diagnosing Sun Protection Behavioral Barriers and Identifying Interventions for Public Health and the Environment

Abstract

Common chemicals in sunscreen pose risks to corals and a wide range of other coastal species. To fulfill natural resource protection mandates, government agencies promote voluntary sun protection behaviors (SPBs) that protect human health while limiting chemical pollution. Yet little research on this topic exists to help inform program design. This article addresses that gap by identifying relevant behavioral barriers and associated interventions that agencies should consider in developing research-based public sun protection programs to lower environmental impacts. Natural resource managers can increase the effectiveness of their programs and outreach by adopting those that reduce informational complexity, impart ways social norms are changing, provide sunscreen product information at the time of the decision, and take steps to increase the probability of spillover of new behaviors to other locations.

Keywords:

• aquatic ecosystems
• behavioral interventions
• sun protection
• sunscreen chemicals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Park Service under a contract with Resource Systems Group (P14PC00630/140P2119F0193, CFDA number 15.000) and a Cooperative Agreement (P17AC00691).