Hawaii’s statewide sunscreen law restricts selling, not wearing
HRS §342D-21 names two chemicals and reaches commerce only. Every subsection is quoted below, from the Legislature’s own text.
Before you rely on this — this page reports what a published instrument says, and that is general information rather than legal advice. Legislatures and county councils amend these instruments without changing a word on this page. Before a compliance decision — what you stock, what you sell, what you hand a guest — open the current text at the link beside the quotation, which also carries the date that passage was read, and confirm what you find with the agency that administers the rule or with your own counsel.
Hawaii sunscreen rules, in short
- Two chemicals, and the section names them. The statewide restriction reaches sunscreen containing oxybenzone or octinoxate. Subsection (c) defines each by IUPAC name, CAS number and synonyms, so the same two chemicals are caught however an ingredient panel spells them — “benzophenone-3”, “ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate”.
- The statewide rule reaches sale, not use. The verbs are “sell, offer for sale, or distribute for sale in the State”, and the section has no others. Wearing a sunscreen, carrying one, or bringing one into Hawaii is not something the statewide law addresses.
- A prescription is an exception on the face of it. The prohibition is on sale without a prescription issued by a licensed healthcare provider, and the section defines both halves: a prescription expressly includes an order for a sunscreen, and the provider is a physician, an osteopathic physician or an advanced practice registered nurse.
- Maui County is stricter. MCC ch. 20.42 restricts non-mineral sunscreen as a category rather than two named chemicals, and it reaches use or application by any person as well as sale.
What sunscreen is allowed in Hawaii?
Statewide, everything the section does not name. HRS §342D-21 is written as a prohibition on two chemicals rather than as a list of permitted ones, so a sunscreen containing neither oxybenzone nor octinoxate falls outside it. That includes the mineral filters: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide appear nowhere in the section, and nothing in it limits them. It also includes avobenzone and octocrylene, which have never been in it. Maui County defines the restricted category the other way round — everything that is not mineral — so “allowed in Hawaii” has two answers, and which one applies depends on the island.
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.
Who may write the prescription, and what counts as one
Subsection (a) turns on that phrase, and the section defines both halves of it rather than leaving them to be assumed. Summaries drop both, which is what makes the exception sound theoretical. It is not — the definition says so in terms:
"Prescription" means an order for medication, that is dispensed to or for an ultimate user. "Prescription" shall not include an order for medication that is dispensed for immediate administration to the ultimate user, such as a chart order to dispense a drug to a bed patient for immediate administration in a hospital. "Prescription" includes an order for a sunscreen.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on The last sentence is the operative one. An order for a sunscreen is something the section contemplates, not an edge case read into it.
"Licensed healthcare provider" means a physician or osteopathic physician licensed pursuant to chapter 453, or an advanced practice registered nurse licensed pursuant to chapter 457.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on Three categories, and the definition is exhaustive: a physician, an osteopathic physician, or an advanced practice registered nurse. A pharmacist is not among them.
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. The date traces to the 2021 bills that would have added avobenzone and octocrylene, which were never enacted. 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.
Neither chemical is left to be recognised by name, either. The section defines both by IUPAC name and CAS number and then lists their synonyms — which is the part that matters in front of a shelf, because the synonyms are what an ingredient panel actually prints:
"Oxybenzone" refers to the chemical (2-Hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)-phenylmethanone under the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry chemical nomenclature registry; that has a chemical abstract service registry number 131-57-7; the synonyms of which include but are not limited to benzophenone-3, Escalol 567, Eusolex 4360, KAHSCREEN BZ-3, Uvasorb MET/C, Syntase 62, UV 9, Uvinul 9, Uvinul M-40, Uvistat 24, USAF Cy-9, Uniphenone-3U, 4-methoxy-2-hydroxybenzophenone and Milestab 9; and is intended to be used as protection against ultraviolet light radiation with a spectrum wavelength from 370 nanometers to 220 nanometers in a sunscreen.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on On an ingredient panel this is usually 'benzophenone-3'. The section names that synonym, and a dozen trade names with it.
"Octinoxate" refers to the chemical (RS)-2-Ethylhexyl (2E)-3-(4-methoxyphenyl)prop-2-enoate under the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry chemical nomenclature registry; that has a chemical abstract service registry number 5466-77-3; the synonyms of which include but are not limited to ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, octyl methoxycinnamate, Eusolex 2292, Neo Heliopan AV, NSC 26466, Parsol MOX, Parsol MCX, and Uvinul MC80; and is intended to be used as protection against ultraviolet light radiation with a spectrum wavelength from 370 nanometers to 220 nanometers in a sunscreen.
Hawaii State Legislature · read word for word on On an ingredient panel this is usually 'ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate' or 'octyl methoxycinnamate'. Both are named in the definition.
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.
Solvyn Shield, the sunscreen we make, has one active ingredient: zinc oxide. It contains neither oxybenzone nor octinoxate, the two chemicals the statewide law names. See Shield’s 5 mL packets and prices.
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.
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.