Photo by Shela Courtesy of Creative Commons
Camila Fernandez / Staff Writer
Brittney Banter grew up with a tanning bed in her home with her mom as an avid tanner.
“My mom used to go to the tanning salon three times a week until she bought her own tanning bed,” said Banter, a freshman in marketing and international business. “People would come to my house just to use it and everyone was using tanning beds so I was like ‘I want to use it too.’”
A recent study by JAMA dermatology reported that the number of skin cancer cases due to indoor tanning is higher than the number of lung cancer cases due to smoking.
Banter’s mom has suffered skin damage like wrinkles and dark spots and has cut back on her tanning sessions.
But with over 1,200 tanning salons in Florida — more than the 868 McDonalds — the tanning bed trend hasn’t fizzled.
In the United States, 55 percent of college students have tanned with 419,000 new skin cancer cases attributed to indoor tanning each year, according to JAMA dermatology research.
The World Health Organization classified ultraviolet tanning devices in its Group 1, a list of dangerous cancer-causing substances that include plutonium, cigarettes and solar radiation.
And a recent study by the University of Miami reported a direct link between indoor tanning and skin cancer — particularly melanoma, the deadliest type.
Martin Zaiac, chair of the Department of Dermatology at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine and co-founder of the Greater Miami Skin and Laser Center, said there is no question that tanning beds increase risks of skin cancer.
“The ultraviolet light in tanning beds can be abused,” Zaiac said. “Tanning beds have a specific wavelength of light that is much more intense. You’re in the tanning bed for a few minutes and you come out with a tan like you’ve been there for a few hours on the beach.”
[pullquote]“If you’ve had more than five or six blistering sunburns in your life, which probably most of us that live here in South Florida have had, your incidences are likely going to develop, meaning the likelihood of melanoma is greater,” Zaiac said.[/pullquote]
Zaiac said he deals with different types of skin cancer almost every day.
“If you’ve had more than five or six blistering sunburns in your life, which probably most of us that live here in South Florida have had, your incidences are likely going to develop, meaning the likelihood of melanoma is greater,” Zaiac said.
“To be on the preventative side we as dermatologists feel that it’s important that everybody gets a full head to toe check to make sure that there is no moles that look suspicious.”
Zaiac treats young adults to older patients, but said it is usually in the third, fourth and fifth decades of life that he sees melanoma in his patients.
The study suggests youth and college students are the heaviest users of tanning beds. Exposure over time can lead to an increased risk of cancer.
“The skin has a tremendous resistance and it’s with time and the repetitive exposure to ultraviolet light and possibly other factors that can stimulate these cancers is when we see them,” Zaiac said.
Banter’s mom was told by her dermatologist to stop using tanning beds.
“She had to get a lot of creams and she had to get stuff for her face to make her wrinkles go away. It was more expensive at the end of the day to not use the tanning bed,” Banter said.
Rather than using indoor tanning, Zaiac recommends spray tanning as a healthier alternative.
“Psychologically, patients feel better if they have a little bit of color,” Zaiac said. “My option for them would be to go with the artificial spray tanner. In the long run, it causes less chances of skin cancer and certainly we also know that ultraviolet light creates more wrinkly premature aging. So to all who have consciences about looking good, that’s an added benefit.”
“The thing with the spray tan is a lot of times it comes out orangey,” Banter said. “You look like an Oompa-loompa.”
However, Zaiac said with today’s improved spraying products, the color on human skin is becoming more natural than the orange-look.
Zaiac and Banter did agree on one thing: moderation is key for those who still consider using tanning beds.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program, frequent users using high-pressure sunlamps may have received as much as 12 times the annual ultraviolet dose than from sun exposure.
In fact, ultraviolet exposure provided by tanning beds are excessive. The Food and Drug Administration reported that comparable cosmetic effects can be produced with exposures that are one-fourth the levels currently used.
Broward legislatures are working to tighten restrictions on tanning bed use.
“Tanning beds are dangerous, especially if you don’t use them responsibly,” said Banter, who no longer uses the tanning bed in her mom’s home. “I’m already tan, so all I did was get radiation instead of getting tanner.”
Zaiac said everything in moderation is reasonably acceptable.
“You have to use a conscious determination,” he said. “We know that this can cause skin cancer like we know smoking cigarettes can cause cancer, but people still choose to do it. If they are going to do it, do it with a low-energy one in moderation.”
–news@fiusm.com
Yes, moderation is the key and thank you for saying so. BUT you also need to acknowledge that tanning at home is VERY different than tanning in a professional salon. Professional salons limit how long and how often a person tans based on their skin type. They do that to ensure there is no risk of overexposure and sunburn. A home unit provides no such safety. A person can tan in their own sunbed for hours if they choose and they can do it every day. The World Health Organization found home units to increase the risk of skin cancer by 40 percent. Compare that to the increased risk attributed to professional salons of 6 percent. So while tanning isn’t for everyone, doing it in a professional salon is the best approach and consider that people who tan in professional salons have healthier Vitamin D levels. Vitamin D deficiency is linked to over 100 diseases including many forms of cancer. There are benefits to tanning and when done properly it can be a viable option for many people.