Tanning Beds: A Case Study

Many people think that is it possible to achieve a “healthy tan,” but this thought has been proven wrong. Overexpose to UV-A and UV-B rays from the sun lead to premature aging of the skin, as well as the possible formation of skin cancer, know as melanoma. An appearance of a tan is actually a stage of burning and damage to the skin. Although a tan may be desirable to many, the fact remains that more people need to be educated on the dangers of the sun’s harmful rays, and the possible health complications of overexposure.

I read the article “Kids want to tan” and I can express my reaction using this thesis: “The danger of getting too much tan”. The main ideas that I can find in this article are three: the sun-obsession, the skin cancer, and the percentage and incidence of skin cancer. I’m going to give a summary of this article and I’m going to explain the main ideas adding details related to my knowledge and my experience.

Thesis: Many people do not use sun protection on a daily bases and are unaware of the health effects of sun exposure that can be easily preventive by using sun protection.

tanning promises and creates a beautiful tan in only a few sessions. The result from this tan is dark and clear skin that makes a person feel and look better. No wonder this craze is so popular. Who wouldn’t want to look like they just came back from the Caribbean with beautiful skin? I mean having tan skin does make a person look better right? This question is obviously a personal opinion, but this new habit of tanning indoors has become a growing concern. There are many long term effects to indoor tanning that are harmful to a person. But most people do not understand this because the short-term effects are the most satisfying.

The reasoning behind this is because tanning beds are bad for one's skin, health, and no one takes into consideration how much damage they can cause. 35% of all American adults, 59% of college students, 17% of all teens tan, but yet no one seems to realize the damage because it is so easy to become addicted to. “Tanning beds have been declared as carcinogen (cancer-crawling substances). Tanning beds can lead to long term effects like wrinkling in the skin, damage to collagen of skin, cataracts and mutations that impair the DNA’s normal functions. But tanning beds can also lead to eye cancer and damage to the tissue. There are many other things out there that people can use instead of going into a tanning bed and damaging their skin each time they go. They have things such as tanning lotion, creams or sprays that are not harmful to the body. “Endorphins trigger a positive feeling in the body, easily comparable to morphine,” (“Why is tanning dangerous?”) But they’re also short term effects that come along with using tanning beds such as redness of the skin, dark spots, DNA damage, thickening of the epidermis (inflamed or swollen), sunburn or sun

Many teens today use tanning beds, but aren’t aware of how dangerous they really are. Tanning, especially indoor tanning has been linked to Melanoma and other types of skin cancers. A review of scientific evidence estimated that 400,000 cases of skin cancer in the United States is because of tanning bed and 6,000 cases of Melanoma. An increased rate of Melanoma was found in women under the age of 40, which rose a third since the early 1990’s. As time has

Being the daughter of woman who has had both basal cell and squamous cell skin cancer, I am biased in my belief that tanning beds cause skin cancer. As a teenager, I never used the services of a tanning salon, because my mother and my dermatologist succeeded in terrifying me about the dangers of tanning beds. Not surprisingly the article I found, “Congressional Investigation Finds Tanning Salons Lie About Health Risks to Patrons”, confirmed my beliefs. The article summarizes a study that was completed by the U.S House and Energy Committee, which revealed that 90% of the 300 tanning salons that were researched by the committee had denied the inherent risks associated with tanning beds. In addition, the author of the article, Mikaela Conley, compares and contrasts the causation between skin cancer and tanning beds between professionals who have conflicting interests.

Tanning salons are required to get a permit from the Department of Health and Environmental Control but should people really trust that? There are also signs everywhere in tanning salons that state that all beds are sanitary but “DHEC openly admits it hasn’t completed routine annual inspections on tanning salons since 2001” (WMBF News Par. 13). The UV light used in the indoor tanning beds can not kill off bacteria alone. With these workers only getting paid minimum wage a lot of them do not put in much effort to fully clean each tanning bed. People can past down many diseases including warts, herpes, athletes foot and lice. There are constantly risks being taken everyday by using tanning beds. There may also be complaints on the cleanliness of the tanning beds that people may not be aware of because tanning salons can

According to International Agency for Research on Cancer’s (2007) systematic review about sunbeds and melanoma cancer worldwide, “First exposure to sunbeds before 35 years of age significantly increased the risk of melanoma” (1116). Further research strengthens the link between tanning beds and melanoma. Lazovich et al. (2010) studied the diagnosed cases of melanoma in the state of Minnesota between 2004-2007. The age group they studied was 25-59, and asked the study participants about their tanning bed practices (1557). They found out that the odds ratio “for the likelihood of melanoma in relation to having ever tanned indoors was 1.74…Melanoma risk increased markedly with frequency of use” (Lazovich et al., 2010, 1564).

Tanning has become increasingly popular over years. The question is it beneficial or a bad business deal to start. The truth is tanning is convenient method utilized by many individuals to gain skin tone and color, builds self- esteem and promote relaxation. It can be beneficial in many aspects of our lives as well as an alternative to more harmful exposure but there are always risks at everything you do. Dermatologists today are against it for the simple fact that they believe it causes skin cancer. According to NCI (National Cancer Institute) exposure to UV radiation—whether from the sun or from artificial sources such as sunlamps utilized in tanning beds—increases of developing skin cancer. IRAC (International Agency for Research on

Legislation passed a bill regulating minor’s use of tanning beds; however, no limit has been set to regulate the amount of tanning a minor can consume. Due to the high amount of debate on whether there should be regulations on artificial tanning, Donna W. Driscoll, professor at Molloy College, and Jennifer Darcy, clinical instructor, evaluated all fifty states in an online questionnaire regarding restrictions on tanning. The questionnaire included questions regarding the access of tanning beds by minors and legal enforcement issues. The questionnaire scaled the answers of the states on a range of four levels of restriction: zero having no restrictions, less than ten having minimal restrictions, ten to twenty having moderate restrictions, and

I’m sure that most of us have went into a tanning bed or have been tanning outside before, it’s relaxing and peaceful. However, people don’t truthfully know all the dangers of it and how it affects your skin. It can cause major long term and short term damage to you and your skin. I think that the FDA should ban the sale and use of indoor tanning for non-medical purposes.

Tanning beds, therefore, have the power to control exposure time and the ratio of UVA to UVB rays for a "perfect balance" (http://www.shop.net/suncity/). Since tanning beds filter out most of the burning UVB rays, chances of getting burned decrease dramatically (http://www.darquetan.com/faq.htm). Therefore, the companies can claim that the tanning beds cannot be any more harmful than the sun.

Imagine going to a tanning salon and asking information on the safety of indoor tanning. The employees tell you that it is safe, in fact, they encourage the use, saying it is good for you. Imagine six months later going to your doctor for a checkup and having your doctor tell you he is concerned about something you thought was a beauty mark. You come to find that you have malignant melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer at the age of 27. After doing some research it was obvious that going to this tanning salon was the cause. You have just taken a glimpse into the life of Lisa Whitehead who shared her story to prevent something like this from happening to others. This essay will analyze issues related to Indoor Tanning. It will employ the

According to Sherrif Ibrahim and Marc Brown, in Tanning and Cutaneous Malignancy, sun exposure, at the end of the 19th century, was considered a skin protectant to cancer. Ibrahim and Brown state that before the Industrial Revolution tan skin was a sign that someone was low class because he or she worked outdoors, while “porcelain” skin was associated with high society. After the Industrial Revolution, this idea switched and those who were tan we associated with being wealthy and happy since those who were tan had enough time to lounge around outdoors. Since then, the search for a perfect tan has increased and the first indoor tanning facility opened in 1978 in America (Ibrahim &