Tanning Indoors Is More Dangerous Than Tanning Outdoors
One of the most common spiels you'll hear at the tanning salon is that if you're going to tan, it's "smarter" to do so in a bed as opposed to outdoors. Tanning salon employees like Heather Carrillo, who worked at a salon for a year and a half, say they are taught in their "Smart-Tan Certification" to "never say indoor tanning is 'safe' [but] to say it is 'smart.' Obviously getting a tan is not safe, so the selling point is that in a bed you can monitor the exact amount of exposure as opposed to tanning outside where the UV percentages change every day."
So is this true? Is tanning indoors smarter that outdoors due to the "controlled environment" of a bed? David E. Bank, MD, a dermatologist and founding member of The Skin Cancer Foundation, says no. In fact, he maintains that it's quite the opposite -- tanning indoors is actually more dangerous to the health of your skin because "you're getting a much higher concentration of the longer wavelength UVA, which damages more deeply into the skin" than being out in the sun. And research backs him up. "Frequent tanners using new, high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure" and are "74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors," says The Skin Cancer Foundation.
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"Tanorexia" Is a Real Disease
A disorder that means a tanned person never feels like they are "tan enough" is a real issue; one that has garnered the street term, "tanorexia."
In a study published in the "Archives of Dermatology," behavioral scientists found that a subgroup of college students who tanned indoors showed telltale signs of a substance-related disorder -- meaning they were hooked on tanning the same way people are addicted to drugs and alcohol. These frequent tanners, or "tanorexics," were also "more likely to report moderate to severe symptoms of anxiety and depression than their peers who were not addicted to tanning or did not tan at all," says Time magazine.
All of the addicted students polled knew that they could develop skin cancer from using tanning beds, but 98 percent said the risk didn't prevent them from wanting to be more tan.
If you've ever set foot in a tanning salon, you've heard the hard sell. They push "tan accelerators" costing up to $90 a pop, a package of tans so your "glow doesn't go," and the promise that tanning beds are a "smarter" choice than baking out at the beach.
And apparently, you don't have to be a dummy to be sold. Approximately 7.8 million adult women and 1.9 million adult men in the United States tan indoors, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.
That's a lot of willing customers allowing a business to knowingly, and quite happily, damage their skin.
So what is this, an alternate universe? What happened to the idea that the beauty industry was one that promoted youth and health? Spending time in a tanning bed practically guarantees you'll eventually deal with skin problems like photo damage, brown spots, fine lines, and wrinkles. Oh and hey, perhaps you've heard about this thing called melanoma, another not-so-lovely side effect of your tanning habit. Yeah, it's a deadly skin cancer that can spread throughout your entire body and kill you. Dead.
So why do Americans continue to subject themselves to the wrath of tanning beds and what are the secrets these tanning salons are keeping from us in order to keep business booming? Read on.
