Sunday, May 6, 2012

Indoor Tanning is a no-no


Have you ever gone to tanning salon? If yes, stop. If no, good job. This is a follow up to Lulu's previous blog about indoor tanning. I found an article about an investigation done on tanning salons called "Congressional Report Exposes Tanning Industry's Misleading Message to Teens" They made some very interesting and alarming discoveries about what tanning salons tell their potential customers about the link between indoor tanning and risk for skin cancer.


They found five very interesting and alarming discoveries. First of all, the salons said that indoor tanning does not pose a threat and that the link between indoor tanning and skin cancer is a “myth” and “rumor”. Over half of them denied that indoor tanning would increase the risk of skin cancer. Second, 4/5 salons said that indoor tanning is beneficial for one’s health. They claimed various health benefits such as weight loss, preventing osteoporosis, boosting the immune system, and even treating depression! Third, the salons said that the rising rates of skin cancer are linked to increased use of sunscreen (which makes absolutely no sense to me). They also got a quote saying, “it’s got to be safe, or else they (government) wouldn’t let us do it”. Forth, the tanning salons did not follow FDA recommendations. The FDA suggests that indoor tanning should be limited to 3 times a week but ¾ of the salons said first time customers are allowed to tan daily, sometimes without 24-hour intervals. Lastly, the tanning salons specifically target teenage girls through their advertisements. They give student discounts, and have specials for prom, homecoming and back to school events. During these special they allow frequent tanning for these young girls.

I found this to be completely absurd. Sometimes teenage girls can be very gullible and believe all of this, which is very sad. The tanning salons need to know the risks of indoor tanning and they should make their customers aware of it. Also, they shouldn’t say its safe just because the government allows it. The government also allows smoking and that is obviously linked to lung cancer. It also allows alcohol, which can have numerous detrimental effects on individuals. Also, they shouldn’t be saying that the link between indoor tanning and cancer is just a myth or rumor because it’s not. It is a very serious subject and they should know that.

After reading that article, I did some research on the link between tanning booths and skin cancer. I found a study by Mingfeng Zhang titled, Use of Tanning Beds and Incidence of Skin Cancer. They researched into the correlation between tanning bed use during high school/college and ages 25-35 and cancer (basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma).  The participants were US non-Hispanic whites. They were asked questions about how often they used tanning beds, childhood tendency to burn, mole count on their legs, number of severe sunburns, family history of melanoma, and natural hair color. They found that people who used tanning beds more often during high school/college had more moles and severe sunburns. They found that tanning bed use during high school/college has a strong link with basal cell carcinoma.

This chart shows the link between tanning bed use and the risk of the 3 different kinds of skin cancer. There is a higher risk for all 3 types of skin cancer for people who used tanning beds during high school/college compared to usage at age 25-35. Also, the table shows that the risk for basal cell carcinoma is the highest followed by squamous cell carcinoma and then melanoma. However, the article does not explain why the risk for basal cell carcinoma is greater than the others. I think it would be interesting to look into why this is and why the risk for melanoma was the least.  


"Skin Cancer Foundation." Congressional Report Exposes Tanning Industry's Misleading Messaging to Teens. Skin Cancer Foundation, 1 Feb. 2012. Web. 03 May 2012. <http://www.skincancer.org/news/tanning/tanningreport>.

Zhang, Mingfeng, Abrar Qureshi, Alan Geller, Lindsay Frazier, David Hunter, and Jiali Han. "Use of Tanning Beds and Incidence of Skin Cancer." Journal of Clinical Oncology. American Society of Clinical Oncology, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 3 May 2012. <http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2012/02/27/JCO.2011.39.3652.full.pdf>.


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