 "Photo: Chaz McBride")
People want to “glow,” but it comes with a price.
Now that it’s fall, maintaining a bronze, summer tan may not be so easy, as tank tops and flip flops give way to sweaters and boots for colder months.
However, a recent report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an organization of the World Health Organization, indicated the use of tanning booths and beds may not be the safest solution to winter-white skin.
The study stated people under the age of 30 who use tanning beds are 75 percent more likely to develop melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer.
IARC moved tanning beds to the highest risk category — or “carcinogenic to humans” category — according to an article in The Lancet Oncology journal. IARC also found the use of tanning beds to be linked to melanoma of the eye.
Chico dermatologist Dr. Daniel Pardini knows tanning beds can be effective for acquiring golden skin, but they can also be extremely damaging, he said. Tanning beds specifically use UVA light — a wavelength of light that tans the skin.
Unfortunately, UVA light also affects the skin in other ways, Pardini said. Long-term tanning destroys some of the support tissue fiber and elastic tissue fibers. It also causes pigment changes that contribute to skin aging.
“The concern is that you do not see the problem when you’re getting the exposure,” Pardini said. “There is a latency time period of 10 maybe 15 or longer years until you see the effects of extensive sun exposure and, for that matter, the UVA light of tanning booths.”
Despite warnings, many people continue tanning at the popular hotspots in Chico.
Jaymi Robinson, owner of AJ’s Tanning on West Sacramento Avenue provides a controlled environment for people to get the bronzed look they desire, she said. The business does this by following California’s regulated tanning bed laws, Robinson said.
She has also placed signs in the rooms to warn customers of the dangers of tanning.
“I think tanning is like anything else,” Robinson said. “If you do it the correct way and do it in moderation — like you should — it’s perfectly safe.”
She takes precautionary measures for her customers and evaluates their skin tone before their first time in the tanning bed. Robinson also provides towels and eye protection for her customers, she said.
“As long as you’re in a controlled environment, you’re going to tan and you’re not going to burn,” Robinson said.
She thinks it is much safer for people to go to a tanning salon for 10 minutes than it is to go out in the sun for an hour and a half where they cannot control the amount of sun they receive, she said.
“I think you’re going to want to look good and it is my job to make sure you look good safely,” Robinson said.
Sophomore Katherine Barbin has been visiting tanning salons for about three years and, last year, used Craig Hall’s tanning bed while she lived there.
However, Barbin stopped going to tanning beds when she heard reports about harmful rays and the possibility of getting skin cancer, she said.
“When I first started going a few years ago it wasn’t as big of a thing as it has become recently,” Barbin said. “So, when I started learning all that new information, I started thinking, ‘oh, maybe I shouldn’t go.’”
Barbin is now using alternative methods of tanning, such as spray tans that are offered at nearly every tanning salon, she said.
Barbin plans to keep her tan using non-harmful techniques, which she has modeled after celebrities, she said.
“If you look at celebrities that look tan all the time, they’re not using tanning beds anymore,” Barbin said. “A lot of them are using non-harmful ways of tanning.”
Pardini thinks there are ways for people to avoid harmful effects while still getting the look they want. It is much safer to use creams and self-tanners, he said. Pardini’s message to teens and young adults is, “The tan you’re getting now, you’re going to pay for later.”
Kim Sloan can be reached at
ksloan@theorion.com
4 comments
Vincent Cogliano, head of the IARC Monographs program at the International Agency for Research on Cancer-- where the World Health Organization-sanction group's debate originated -- admits the results on which many of the conclusions are based are "limited" as reported in the Ontario's The Whig Standard. A review looked at 23 previously published studies that investigated the association between indoor tanning and melanoma risk in fair-skinned populations. But the studies included only fair-skinned people, who have been long proven to be more susceptible to melanoma. Cogliano said the use of fair-haired study subjects was natural since they are the ones who get the disease most often*. Also take note that the research was taken from regions of the world that have some of the highest in rates of skin cancer and many cases simply used mailed or phoned in questionairres, suggesting less than scientific confirmation.
As media outlets from across the globe blasted reports of the IARC classification of sunbeds as a known carcinogen virtually condemning sunbed usage, few if any included the information that you have just read. Remember that sunlight is also on this list from the World Health Organization, and yet hypocritically, your elected officials will not seek banning your teens from playing baseball, softball, hiking, biking, golf, outdoor water sports and more. They won’t try closing beaches, lakes, and pools. They will try to scare the public with misinformation on indoor tanning. Remember that it’s about avoiding overexposure and sunburn and for those that choose indoor tanning to do so in moderation and responsibility.