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Doctor warns about dangers of tanning |
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Tuesday, 31 March 2009 |
By KRISTA HAYES
Staff Writer
As high school students rush to make last-minute nail and hair appointments in anticipation of prom next month, a Lima physician issued a warning for teens about the dangers of indoor tanning and the long-term effects “fake baking.”
According to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), nearly 30 million people in the U.S. acquire a tan in salons every year — that’s more than 1 million people a day who are exposing themselves to a tanning lamps ultraviolet rays. More than 70 percent of these individuals are white females between the ages of 16 and 49.
An FDA report indicates 2.3 million teens visit tanning salons in the U.S. every year, with the younger they start tanning then the greater their risk will be of developing melanoma — a deadly skin cancer. A review of a Swedish study showed the risk of developing melanoma increases by 75 percent if exposed to tanning beds before the age of 35.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking a ban for teens from indoor tanning salons due to the dangers they present, only half of the states in the U.S. regulate tanning bed use by teens.
While many teens admit they are fully aware of the risks and effects tanning indoors may have on their bodies, Lima dermatologist Dr. Michael Haephy said adolescents choose to ignore or surpass these dangers because of stereotypes and cliches in today’s society.
“For years, teens and women in particular have been told by society and the media that they will appear sexier or more attractive if they tan,” Haephy said. “Back in the early 1920s, however, this wasn’t the case, as it was unheard of for women to wear skimpy attire revealing any skin. Women never found it in themselves the need to have and uphold a golden tanned skin tone since society expected them to be covered up all the time.”
The positives of tanning indoors has negatives from minor issues such as dry skin to more serious like premature skin aging
and melanoma.
“Many studies and evidence over the years has shown that exposure to ultraviolet light is a definite risk factor for skin cancers such as melanoma, premature skin aging or wrinkling and rosacea,” Haephy said. “Likewise, it can also have a toll on the eyes, causing serious eye injuries including cataracts, conjunctivitis, corneal infections and retinal damage.
“If the tanning beds are not properly cleaned and sanitized after use, women also may be subjectable to catching bacterial or fungal infections like folliculitis or emphitigo, which looks similar to ring worm,” he said. “However, tanning indoors and excessive exposure to the outdoor sun is what is causing approximately 95 percent of skin cancer cases.”
Haephy admitted he feels so strongly against indoor and outdoor tanning that the first tip he would offer someone when asked how to protect themselves while tanning would be to unplug the tanning bed. He said there are other measures women can take.
“I always tell people to wear sunscreen with at least an SPF (sun protection factor) of 30 or higher, sport sunglasses that cover the whole eye and the areas surrounding them, and also protect their ears, heads and faces by wearing a wide-brimmed hat instead of a ball cap, as skin cancer can spread to every little nook and cranny on the body,” Haephy said.
Upholding the myth that indoor tanning may actually be more dangerous than the sun, the FDA reported that traditional tanning beds and sun lamps typically give off about three times the ultraviolet rays that are emitted by the sun while new, high-pressure sunlamps emit doses of two types of ultraviolet rays that can reach as much as 15 times that of the sun.
A U.K. study found that human skin cells exposed to tanning beds in a laboratory sustained severe DNA damage associated with skin cancer development. Tanning beds are also proven to cause sunburns, and one sunburn doubles the risk of developing skin cancer.
Tanning salons today claim that tanning is necessary to obtain sufficient quantities of vitamin D, but Haephy said people should not be so easily fooled.
“It takes far less UV light to obtain the necessary amount of vitamin D than it does to get a suntan,” Haephy said. “The bottom line is that people should be aware of tanning beds because pretty much every scientifically accepted study shows the strong association of tanning beds with skin cancer.
“Neither tanning indoors or outdoors is more or less dangerous than the other and the more cumulative lifetime exposure of the sun a person receives is dependent on what harmful affects it will have on their bodies later on down the road,” he said.
Despite the risks, Casey Kitta, assistant manager of Fiesta Hair Salon, in Wapakoneta, said there are many other reasons why women tan other than seeking sex appeal and attraction from the opposite sex.
“Some women tan indoors simply because it’s faster than laying out in the sun all day and instant results can be seen,” Kitta said. “Others do it because it’s relaxing to them or reminds them of the warm sunshine during the cold winter months when they cannot get outside to tan.
“Some will tan to get a base before they go on vacation to prevent them from getting sunburnt, although I tend to disagree with this notion because the amount of sunlight that is directly given off differs everywhere in the world,” she said. “Still, I think the main reason why women tan is because it makes them feel good about themselves.”
Taking the necessary precautions to prevent their client base from contracting bacterial or fungal infections, Kitta said the salon uses a tanning bed cleaner.
“To clean the beds, we spray both of them down with an Australian Gold bed cleaner that stays on for 1 minute, killing everything, bacteria and germs included,” Kitta said. “We clean them after every use and we also wash the towels and soak the protective goggles in a sanitizer as well.”
To prevent her clients from receiving extreme sun burns while tanning, Kitta said the amount of time that they can spend in the tanning bed for the first time depends on a number of factors including their natural hair color, the color of their eyes, how easily they burn, the presence of freckles on their body and their untanned skin tone.
“When we get a new client who would like to start tanning, we make them fill out a card asking them to answer a series of questions and the darker their natural completion is, the longer they can stay in a tanning bed for for their first time without getting burnt,” Kitta said. “For most of the girls and women who tan here, their hair is sandy brown and they have blue eyes and pale skin, so for their first time tanning I would recommend that they stay in the bed no longer than 5 minutes. The most amount of time that we allow are customers to stay in both our lay-down beds is for 20 minutes.
In addition, Kitta said that she also recommends her clients remove all their makeup before tanning as the skin on their face is thinner and may burn quicker, wear protective eye goggles and that they use a professional tanning lotion or oil with age-defying ingredients.
“For someone looking to tan every day, I always recommend that they wait at least 48 hours in between tanning sessions to ensure that their body has properly healed if they received a little redness from the bulbs in the bed,” Kitta said. “We change the bulbs in our bed after every 7,000 hours of use and post a sign informing our customers that the bulbs may be hotter than normal since they are new and reduce their tanning time. If we find that someone is trying to tan and they still appear to be red, then we will not let them in a bed that day.”
To prevent these harmful affects, Kitta said all she can do is offer her advice and expertise on tanning and its process to her clients, but once the door to the tanning room is shut, they’re on their own.
“We get about 30 to 35 people who come in every day to tan and of them, more than half are teen girls looking to get tan for prom,” Kitta said. “The young girls are typically the ones who feel like they have to tan everyday and like I said before, if they appear to be red, then we won’t let them tan.
“However, all I can do to help prevent them from burning is offer my best advice, but it’s their decision if they want to take it or not, because once the door is shut, the problem is in their hands,” she said.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 01 April 2009 )
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