Claims about Hawaii's sunscreen rules often combine several different things: a statewide statute, a bill that was proposed but not enacted, and two county ordinances that are broader than the state law. Read together they can look like a single ban on a long list of ingredients. Read separately they say quite different things.
Hawaii's statewide statute prohibits the sale, offer of sale and distribution of sunscreen containing oxybenzone or octinoxate without a prescription. In 2021 the Legislature considered SB132, which proposed extending that statewide prohibition to avobenzone and octocrylene. The bill passed the Senate and was amended in a House committee; it was not enacted. Separately, Maui County and Hawaiʻi County have adopted their own mineral-only rules, which reach further than the state statute does.
This article primarily examines the statewide legislative history surrounding SB132, and sets out what each of those documents says, quoted from the record. Where a county rule is broader than the state statute, that is noted and sourced.
What sunscreen ingredients are banned under Hawaii state law?
Two, and the statute names them. Hawaii's sunscreen law is Act 104 of 2018, codified at HRS §342D-21, and it took effect on 1 January 2021.
Beginning January 1, 2021, it shall be unlawful to sell, offer for sale, or distribute for sale in the State any sunscreen that contains oxybenzone or octinoxate, or both, without a prescription issued by a licensed healthcare provider.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on The prohibition reaches sale, offer of sale and distribution. It does not mention applying sunscreen, and it is limited to the two filters it names.
The statute also defines what counts as a sunscreen for its own purposes, which is narrower than it first appears — facial cosmetics are carved out.
"Sunscreen" means a product marketed or intended for topical use to prevent sunburn. Sunscreen does not include products marketed or intended for use as a cosmetic, as defined in section 328-1, for the face.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on
Did Hawaii ban avobenzone and octocrylene?
Not under the statewide statute. Avobenzone and octocrylene are not among the ingredients prohibited by HRS §342D-21, which names oxybenzone and octinoxate only.
Separate county regulations may impose broader requirements, and in two counties they do. That distinction is the source of most of the disagreement about this question, and it is covered below. Our Hawaii sunscreen law page sets out the statute in force on its own, if that is all you need.
What was SB132, and what did it propose?
SB132 was introduced in the 2021 regular session by Senators Kanuha and Gabbard, with Senators Baker and Shimabukuro. It proposed adding two filters to the existing statewide prohibition. The Senate draft read:
A bill that never became law. SB132 SD2 passed the Senate on Third Reading on 9 March 2021, Ayes 25, Noes 0, with reservations from Senators Chang and Nishihara.
Beginning January 1, 2023, it shall be unlawful to sell, offer for sale, or distribute for sale in the State any sunscreen that contains avobenzone or octocrylene without a prescription issued by a licensed healthcare provider.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on Proposed text. This sentence was never enacted, and it is the sentence most often quoted as though it were current law.
Two features of that wording explain a great deal of what followed. It names a date, and it is written in the present tense of a rule already in force. Quoted on its own, without the words "proposed" or "would have", it reads exactly like a statute.
What happened to SB132?
The measure advanced through the Senate. It cleared the Committee on Agriculture and Environment on 17 February 2021 and the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection on 23 February, and passed Third Reading 25–0 on 9 March.
It then crossed to the House and was referred sequentially to the Committees on Energy & Environmental Protection, Consumer Protection & Commerce, and Finance. The first of those reported it out as SB132 SD2 HD1 and recommended referral onward:
The Legislature’s procedural record of SB132 (2021), not the text of any law.
Passed Second Reading as amended in HD 1 and referred to the committee(s) on CPC with none voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) McDermott voting no (1) and none excused (0).
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on The measure history for the 2021 session, as published by the Legislature.
The Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce did not schedule a hearing. Hawaii runs two-year bienniums, so the measure was carried over to the 2022 regular session on 10 December 2021, and no further action was taken on it. It died with that session.
Why did SB132 include a July 1, 2050 effective date?
Because the House committee put it there, and said why in its report.
The version that passed the Senate would have taken effect on approval. The House committee that reported the bill out amended that date to 1 July 2050 — twenty-nine years ahead — and recorded the reason:
A standing committee report — the committee’s own account of what it changed and why. Not law, and not the bill text.
Your Committee has amended this measure by: (1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and (2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
Hawaii State Legislature, House of Representatives · read word for word on Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1009, Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection, 17 March 2021.
The two effective dates, side by side, are the clearest single indication of where the measure stood. This is the Senate draft:
A bill that never became law. SB132 SD2 passed the Senate on Third Reading on 9 March 2021, Ayes 25, Noes 0, with reservations from Senators Chang and Nishihara.
This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on
And this is the House draft that replaced it:
A bill that never became law. SB132 HD1 passed Second Reading in the House on 18 March 2021 and was referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, which never scheduled it.
This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2050.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on
On the committee's own account, the change was made to keep the conversation going rather than to set a commencement date. Either way, the bill did not become law, so neither date ever operated.
Maui County and Hawaiʻi County have separate sunscreen rules
This is the part most often left out, and it is the part that changes the answer for a business.
The state statute contains a preemption clause, and it is time-limited — which is why county rules exist at all:
No county shall enact any ordinance or regulatory restriction to prohibit the sale, use, labeling, packaging, handling, distribution, or advertisement of sunscreens containing oxybenzone or octinoxate, or both, prior to January 1, 2021.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on Counties were barred from legislating in this area only until 1 January 2021. Both county ordinances below took effect after that date.
Maui County adopted Ordinance 5306, establishing Chapter 20.42 of the Maui County Code, effective 1 October 2022. It defines the restricted category by active ingredient rather than by a list of banned chemicals:
"Non-mineral sunscreen" means any sunscreen that uses an active ingredient other than zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
County of Maui · read word for word on
Effective date of Ordinance October 1, 2022
County of Maui · read word for word on
Maui's prohibition is also the broadest in the United States, because it reaches personal application and not only commerce:
Any non-mineral sunscreen must not be used or applied by any person, unless the sunscreen is from a prescription issued by a licensed healthcare provider.
County of Maui · read word for word on Subsection C. The state statute and Hawaiʻi County's ordinance both stop at sale and distribution; this one does not.
Hawaiʻi County (the Island of Hawaiʻi) adopted Ordinance 22-81, which added Article 5, "Prohibition of Non-mineral Sunscreen", to Chapter 14 of the Hawaiʻi County Code. On the text available, §14-31 makes it unlawful to sell, offer for sale or distribute for sale a non-mineral sunscreen without a prescription, and §14-30 defines that category the same way Maui does — by reference to zinc oxide and titanium dioxide.
We have not been able to retrieve the county's own published code programmatically; the county's document server refuses automated requests, and the reproductions that circulate are summaries rather than the instrument. For that reason nothing from Hawaiʻi County is quoted verbatim on this page, and anyone making a compliance decision for the Island of Hawaiʻi should confirm the current text with the Office of the County Clerk rather than rely on this summary or any other.
How the rules compare
| Regulation | Jurisdiction | What it addresses | Reaches use? | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HRS §342D-21 | State of Hawaii | Oxybenzone and octinoxate | No — sale and distribution | Current law, effective 1 Jan 2021 |
| SB132 (2021) | Proposed statewide | Avobenzone and octocrylene | — | Not enacted |
| Ordinance 5306, MCC ch. 20.42 | Maui County | Non-mineral sunscreen | Yes — use and application | Current county law, effective 1 Oct 2022 |
| Ordinance 22-81, HCC ch. 14, art. 5 | Hawaiʻi County | Non-mineral sunscreen | No, on available text | Current county law |
Always confirm current requirements with the applicable government authority before making a compliance decision.
Why the confusion persists
Three things make this a genuinely easy subject to get wrong.
The proposed text reads like law. A bill is drafted in the language of a rule already in force. Lifted out of its document, "it shall be unlawful to sell" carries no marker saying that it was a proposal.
State and county rules are frequently described as one thing. "Hawaii" is both a state and a county, and a summary that is accurate about the statewide statute can be incomplete about Maui, while a summary accurate about Maui can overstate what applies in Waikīkī.
The shorthand does a lot of work. "Reef-safe" is a marketing term rather than a regulatory one, and it has no agreed definition — we cover what the term does and does not mean separately. A phrase that means different things to different writers is a poor carrier for a list of specific filters.
A near miss compresses badly. A 25–0 Senate vote is genuinely notable, and "passed the Senate unanimously" shortens to "passed" with very little resistance — particularly at the end of a sentence that began with a correct statement about the 2018 law.
What hotels, resorts and retailers should know
For hospitality operators, retailers and other institutional buyers, the distinction that matters is between statewide requirements and county-specific ones. Purchasing decisions should be based on the rules applicable to the location where a product will be sold, distributed or — on Maui — used.
Two practical consequences follow from the documents above.
A property on Oʻahu or Kauaʻi is working to the statewide statute, which names two filters and reaches sale and distribution. A property on Maui is working to a mineral-only rule that also reaches application by a guest. A property on the Island of Hawaiʻi is working to a mineral-only rule that, on the text available, reaches sale and distribution.
The question that answers all three is the same one: what does the Drug Facts panel list as the active ingredients? That panel is the only part of a carton that answers a legal question, and it is the document a compliance conversation should start from — our ingredient guide walks through how to read one.
How to verify Hawaii sunscreen regulations
The Hawaii Legislature publishes the full record, and the two documents you need sit next to each other.
- The measure history shows every hearing, vote and referral for a bill, and whether it ever became an Act.
- The bill drafts show the text at each stage. The effective-date section is usually the last numbered section, and on a bill that did not pass it is often the most informative part of the document.
One practical note: the public capitol.hawaii.gov front end sits behind a challenge that
blocks most automated access. The data host serves the same documents without it, which is
what the links below use.
A second note, which applies to any bill: the same sentence frequently appears twice in a draft — once as proposed statutory text, and once inside the Report Title block as the Legislature's own summary. The summary is written to be readable and is therefore the more quotable of the two. The operative text is the one inside the numbered section.
Primary sources and Hawaii legislative records
State law
- HRS §342D-21 — sale and distribution of sunscreen containing oxybenzone or octinoxate; prohibition
Legislative record for SB132 (2021)
- SB132 measure status history, 2021 regular session — Hawaii State Legislature
- SB132 SD2 — the version the Senate passed, 9 March 2021
- SB132 HD1 — the House draft carrying the 1 July 2050 effective date
- Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1009 — the committee report stating why the effective date was changed
- SB132 measure status history, 2022 regular session — showing the carryover and no further action
County rules
- Maui County Ordinance 5306 — establishing Chapter 20.42, Maui County Code
- Hawaiʻi County Code — Office of the County Clerk, where Chapter 14 is published
All dates, votes and quoted text above were read from these records on 16 September 2026.
A note on scope. Regulations change, and county rules in this area have changed more recently than the state statute. This article is provided for general informational purposes and reflects sources reviewed on 16 September 2026. It is not legal advice. Businesses should confirm current requirements with the applicable state or county authority before making a compliance decision.
Solvyn makes a mineral sunscreen, which means we have an interest in this subject. We have tried to keep that out of the analysis above: every statement about the law is quoted from the instrument or the legislative record, and where we could not read the instrument we have said so. If you are looking at sun care for a hotel, resort or venue, you can explore Solvyn for business.
