Tanning Beds Provide Alternatives to Sunlight

[Editor-in-Chief]

Tanning Beds Provide Alternatives to Sunlight

For less-dangerous bronze skin, sun worshippers can head to an ultraviolet bed

By: Natalie DeFay
Issue date: 4/9/07 Section: News


Media Credit: Jazzy Graza

As the winter season draws to a close, the pressure to be tan is on the minds of many beach-goers at Cal State Fullerton. The images portrayed by the media often glorify a bronzed body.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, 38,000 cases and 7,300 deaths linked to tanning, including malignant melanoma and other related skin cancers, are anticipated this year in America.

Even so, there is a large portion of the population that will continue to tan outdoors and indoors either temporarily or on a regular basis.

Bart Siggson, owner of Exotic Tan in Brea, said that tanning salons will typically hit their peak of business in the springtime because of vacationers, and that there is always a rush of high school students coming in before prom. However, many tan all year long simply because they don't like to look pasty.

Business Major Derek Hrubeniuk is well aware of the risks involved with tanning beds as he has experienced some burning before, yet he tans in the regular beds once every couple of weeks.

"I only go in because I'm really fair skinned," he explained. "In the wintertime I get really white and I don't like it."

As many people want to hit the beach looking as good as possible, it is easy to see why many will ignore the risks and dangers involved with exposure to the harmful ultraviolet rays projected in most tanning beds.

Still, there are dangers associated with artificial tanning, as well as with tanning in the natural sunlight.

The FDA warns that the ultraviolet rays delivered in both methods are harmful to skin, opening the window of opportunity for many forms of skin cancer and damaging sunburn to take a large toll on the body.

Yet tanning in beds does not pose as great a risk as natural tanning.

Siggson said there are three keys to absorbing the safest indoor, ultraviolet-initiated tan possible. These keys are tanning in moderation, starting off with a shorter length of tanning time, and using indoor tanning lotion. The lotion is different from sunscreen because it contains no SPF, yet it moisturizes the skin, allowing it to hold color for a longer period of time after tanning.

Siggson also highly recommended the use of high-pressure beds.

These are beds of the most advanced technology that filter out 99.2 percent of all harmful ultraviolet B rays, which are the shorter rays that immediately burn your skin and lead to aggressive skin cancers.

The ultraviolet A rays emitted by the high pressure beds enhance the coloring agent in the human body; tanning will happen slower, yet with longer-lasting color and less damage done to bather's skin, Siggson said.

The bulbs in these high-pressure beds cost approximately $110 a piece, whereas the regular bulbs merely cost around $15.

Siggson said people should be careful when investing in the use of a high-pressure bed; he said another local Fullerton tanning salon claims to offer these expensive beds, but actually uses the regular bulbs.

"Check and make sure that you are getting what you pay for," Siggson said. "If the bulbs appear to be fluorescent, then you aren't getting a high pressure bed. High pressure will also have a bluish screen which takes part in the filtering process."

Studies on the Web site Tanning-Advisor.com have shown that tanning indoors in a salon is less harmful than tanning outside in the natural sunlight.

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