Are Tanning Beds Safe?: The Ongoing Debate Between Medical Associations and the Indoor Tanning Industry
The popularity of sunbeds and indoor tanning, particularly in the United States, has created a billion dollar business with teenage girls accounting for majority of the market’s consumer percentage. But as the industry continues to grow, so does the debate on whether the products it offers are safe. So, are tanning beds safe? Medical experts are arguing that they are not.
The desire of people, particularly teenage girls, to have a tan might have been influenced by French designer Coco Chanel’s claim that being tanned is fashionable. But the idea of getting a tan directly from the sun is not as attractive as it was before; the growing problems with the atmosphere and the environment in general have made direct contact with the sun a health risk.
But is using a tanning bed safer? A tan is acquired when the skin darkens in response to ultraviolet radiation. UV rays induce the skin to produce more pigment or coloring to protect itself and this results to a darker color. Not everybody, though, is capable of developing a tan. Most fair-skinned people burn or develop freckles in response to UV radiation exposure. For people who do acquire a tan when exposed to UV rays, the process involves the brown pigment melanin being distributed to the superficial portion of the skin or the epidermis in the days after exposure. This process protects the skin from further damage caused by UV rays.
The sunbed industry has argued that this process proves that having a tan is healthy and that using tanning beds is actually good. But researchers countered that the tan might have been produced by DNA damage which could eventually lead to skin cancer. According to some studies, exposure to carcinogenic UV radiation increases the risk of cancer. Medical associations have also warned that the combination of UVA and UVB radiation can result to a damaged cornea which could lead to irreversible vision loss and cataracts.
Are tanning beds safe? The potential harmful effects of UV exposure might take years to manifest and the medical world is worried that by the time a definite answer to this question is ready, it might be too late.
