Hawaii’s sunscreen law restricts selling, not wearing
HRS §342D-21 names two chemicals and reaches commerce only. Here is the section, in full, from the Legislature’s own text.
What the section prohibits
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
Read the verbs. They are “sell”, “offer for sale” and “distribute for sale”, and there are no others in the section. Nothing in Hawaii’s statewide law prohibits using sunscreen, carrying it, or bringing it into the state. A visitor who arrives with a bottle of oxybenzone sunscreen in their luggage is breaking no state law by wearing it — which is close to the opposite of what most travel guidance says.
The prohibition is also not absolute: it applies to sale without a prescription issued by a licensed healthcare provider. A prescription sunscreen containing either chemical may lawfully be sold.
Two chemicals — and the two it has never named
The section reaches oxybenzone and octinoxate. It has carried one source note since it was enacted by Act 104 of 2018 — [L 2018, c 104, §2] — with no amendment entry, which is the Hawaii Revised Statutes’ convention for recording that a section has been changed. Avobenzone and octocrylene appear nowhere in it and never have.
That matters because the claim that Hawaii banned those two filters in 2023 is repeated very widely. It is not true of the State of Hawaii. It is, however, true that Maui County prohibits them, along with every other non-mineral filter — so a flat “Hawaii has not banned avobenzone” is its own kind of wrong, and a dangerous one for anyone operating on Maui.
What counts as “sunscreen”
"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 A facial cosmetic containing either chemical falls outside the state prohibition. The carve-out depends on how the product is marketed, not on where it is applied.
Why the counties have their own rules
The same section that created the statewide prohibition also stopped the counties legislating — but only temporarily, and that window has closed:
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 The bar expired on 1 January 2021. Maui County's own ordinance recites that expiry in its findings as the reason it could legislate.
So Hawaii is not one rule. It is a statewide commerce restriction on two chemicals, plus county ordinances that are broader, that differ from each other, and — on Maui — that reach use.
Every quotation on this page was read from the issuing body’s own text, not from a summary. This page was last reviewed end to end on . Each quotation carries its own source and the date that text was read.
This page describes what a published statute says. It is not legal advice.
Other jurisdictions
- Maui County
MCC ch. 20.42 — mineral only, and it reaches use.
- Key West, Florida
Preempted by Fla. Stat. §499.002(7) since 2020.
- What “reef-safe” means
The ingredients, the science and the term itself — separate from what any law requires.