When longtime Lake Cowichan resident Joe Saysell brought up the affect the plethora of tubers in the summer months have on the Cowichan River and the potential harm they are doing to the heritage river with their sunscreen, the folks at the Tube Shack sprang into action.
The popular river tubing business became keen to offer river-safe sun protection for purchase by its clients.
“We did a bunch of research about the chemicals that shouldn’t be in [the sunscreen] and we found one. Or at least we thought we did,” explained Tube Shack owner Aaron Frisby. But things didn’t work out according to plan.
“We basically found the sunscreen that we thought was the safest for the river,” Frisby began.
Aside from being expensive and tested on animals, it turned out not to be river-safe at all.
“We learned it had zinc in it but I guess zinc is not river-safe and then somebody told us that it was tested on animals. So, we stopped selling it,” he added.
Frisby said while the Tube Shack isn’t offering sunscreen for sale at this point, staff would like to be able to offer the product in the future. “I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to be completely safe for the river,” he admitted.
“It’s definitely something that we’re looking into.”
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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