The Simmons Voice

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features

Media Credit: Maria Costigan Applying tanning lotions is a safe alternative to cancer causing booths.

Wrinkles folded and etched into dried out, lax skin, brown spots that cannot be covered up by make-up. No one wants to look older than they are. In fact, there is a lot of emphasis on looking younger, concealing age, but if you are one of the 30 million individuals who use indoor tanning facilities in the United States every year, healthy young-looking skin will be very difficult to maintain.

Whether from direct sunlight or a tanning bed, ultraviolet (UV) radiation damages skin cells and once you have a tan, as deep or light as it may be, the damage is done. UV radiation causes premature skin aging, skin cancer, eye damage and damage to the immune system. Melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, is what tanners everywhere need to look out for. The rate at which it affects individuals is increasing worldwide faster than any other cancer form. Tanning beds increase the risk of developing it and the risk increases 75 percent for those who first use tanning beds before the age of 35. Also, one blistering sunburn obtained during childhood more than doubles a person's chance of developing melanoma. This year alone, it will kill about 8,650 people in the United States.

Although there are no federal regulations that monitor and control the use of tanning salons, the World Health Organization (WHO) is making strides to acknowledge their dangers. In 2009, the WHO claimed that sunlamps and ultraviolet-emitting tanning beds used for cosmetic reasons are in the same class of carcinogens as cigarettes, arsenic and asbestos. All carcinogens increase the risk of cancer for anyone who uses them once or multiple times.

The WHO's statement about tanning hasn't been the only one to make a such a claim this past year. On Nov. 10, 2009, Howard County in Columbia, Md. approved regulations to ban individuals under the age of 18 from using indoor tanning facilities. It is a known fact that the risks of tanning are even greater for those in the younger age bracket. Maryland wasted no time; the ban of tanning bed use and the regulation of the sanitation in tanning salons took place the following month.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools