More evidence has developed that Safe Sea, a
cream that purportedly wards of jellyfish stings, is
effective: A Stanford University School of Medicine
study has found that it greatly reduces the number of
stings received.
“It didn’t completely inhibit the stings, but it
came pretty darn close,” reported Alexa Kimball,
M.D., who directed the study, which appeared in the
June issue of the Journal of Wilderness and
Environmental Medicine.
Researchers used sea nettles, which can be found
worldwide, and the more dangerous box jellyfish or
sea wasp, which is prevalent along the Florida and
Texas coasts and the Gulf of Mexico. The stings from
these jellyfish can be life threatening. Volunteers had
one arm smeared with the sting-inhibiting cream,
which also contains sunscreen, and the other arm
with a commercial sunscreen alone. The researchers
placed wet jellyfish tentacles on the forearms of the
volunteers for up to 45 seconds. The tentacles contain
nematocysts, nasty little cells that can eject a
toxin-carrying harpoon in a fraction of a second.
Among the 12 volunteers exposed to the sea nettles,
there were no visible changes in the treated
arms, though two participants did report mild discomfort.
Of the arms smeared with sunscreen only,
all 12 showed swelling, and the volunteers reported
discomfort. As for those exposed to the box jellyfish,
three of the 12 treated with the sting inhibitor
reported discomfort, compared with 10 in the
untreated group. Only one inhibitor-treated arm
had visible signs of a sting, compared with nine of
those coated with sunscreen only.
“This certainly suggests the cream is going to
help,” said Kimball, “Even if it doesn’t offer 100-percent
protection, I would rather have some protection
over none.”
Kimball says it contains a substance similar to
one found in the jellyfish bell. Jellyfish use their bells
as a recognition system, so that when the creature
comes into contact with the substance, it thinks it’s
found itself instead of tempting human flesh. The
cream is believed to disrupt the jellyfish’s communication
system so that it doesn’t get the signal to
release its venom.
Scuba diver and author Paul Auerbach, M.D.,
one of the researchers in this study, said he tried the
cream five years ago by smearing some on half his
neck and then jumping into the Mexican ocean
awash in thimble jellyfish. “The side I painted had
two little red bumps on it, and the side I didn’t paint
looked like a road map of Florida. That’s what convinced
me we should do the studies.” He recommends
reapplication before each dive.
Safe Sea is marketed by Nidaria Technology Ltd.
and is available on the web at www.nidaria.com.