Tanning beds have become very popular and immensely important in the United States in the last 10 years. When it comes to tanning beds, it has been proven that 21 percent of all tanners are high school girls and 32 percent of those are in their senior year. According to the National Health Interview Survey, people who tan indoors tend to be young, non-Hispanic white women. When asked, senior Antonia Dean said, “I like it because I like to be tan and it’s like you can be at the beach all year round.”
Tanning salon attendance rises in the months of September through March because people are not getting sun during the cold weather. But are a sun tan and a indoor tan the same thing? Both indoor and outdoor tanning are linked to the skin cancer melanoma, and even cancer in the eye.
The sun produces UV rays, which, when exposed to skin, produces a tan. But indoor tanning exposes us to two kinds of UV rays, UVA and UVB, and the UVA radiation is up to three times more intense than natural sunlight. Cancer from tanning beds normally forms more easily in adolescents because their skin is still growing and therefore more easily damaged. Fifty-nine percent of people that start tanning before age 35 increase their chances of receiving melanoma. Not only can these beds cause cancers, they can also worsen your skin by making you prone to wrinkles and eye damage.
Both indoor and outdoor tanning are very dangerous. The risk from indoor tanning depends on your age and the type of light bulbs used. It has been seen that people do get burns from tanning beds, but what most people don’t know is that a tan indicates damage and is a response to an injury. A tan is really your skin cells responding to damage from UV rays by creating more skin pigment to protect your skin. More than 1,800 people go to the emergency room because of tanning beds every year.
Tans and sunburns both cause damage to skin. The chances of getting squamous cell cancer can increase from exposure to any UV rays, including those of a bulb.
The FDA and CDC have both suggested that people avoid tanning beds. California, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Vermont banned the use of tanning beds by children under 18. Brazil and New South Wales, in Australia, have banned the beds altogether.
An average of one million people use tanning beds, with the most common ages between 16 and 26. Annually, 28 million people use beds and 2.3 of those millions are teens. Senior Sara Newman said, “To get a good tan you should go three to four times a week. After that you build up a tolerance and can go longer, but they do really dry you out!”
Tanning in beds are no better than tanning outside, and a tan is no different than a sunburn.