I want you to immerse yourself and shut your eyes for a moment. Imagine that you had your yearly check-up and you receive a call from your doctor two weeks later. You’re really anxious to find out what’s wrong, and he tells you that you have Stage 0 or Stage 1 and 2 of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Visualize what your reaction would be, whether it’s anger, sadness, hopelessness, or grief.
Many people have been through life-changing experiences like this. Although you have a decently good chance of surviving skill illnesses or skin cancer, nonetheless, you should still try and stay away from things that are bad for your skin, including tanning beds. After examining the causes and effects of artificial tanning beds, it will become obvious that this issue is a problem in our country and the use of tanning beds should be limited or stopped.
Indoor tanning is not the top topic on our society’s minds, it’s not a horrible issue, but it could get there in the future if the problem is not addressed and suppressed. As of January 2016, 13% of all high school students go indoor tanning, 20% of high school girls, 27% of girls in the 12th grade, and 31% of all white high school girls (Indoor Tanning Is Not Safe 1). As we look at these statistics, we see that the biggest audience to address is senior girls and all white high school girls.
Girls are most of the high school population that use indoor tanning beds, even though boys do too. However, it is a bigger issue amongst the girls (probably) because girls want to get a nice tan for prom so in the future they could look back and say: I had a nice tan back then” even though an artificial tan doesn’t look as good as a natural tan. This is a really hard issue to try and lay out for the teens because it’s most often them who indoor tan the most and this is the peak of their sensitivity, this is the time when they hould be avoiding this the most, and young ladies especially because they’re more sensitive to it than the boys along with matter that they go indoor tanning more than the teen boys. Let’s use the story of a woman named Brittany Cicale, she lives in Maryland and began artificially tanning at the age of 17. The former Miss Maryland, says she used tanning beds at least four times a week, and sometimes every day. Although she also tanned in the summer during her 3 years of tanning bed use, Cicala estimates that 90% of her UV exposure was in tanning beds during this period.
So it took Brittany just 3 years to contract melanoma, the most dangerous and harmful skin cancer. Although if you tan, you might not use tanning beds as much as her, who knows, maybe it will take you 6-7 years to contract a skin cancer or 8-9 years. There’s no doubt that indoor tanning is not the safest way to go when trying to a get a tan for any reason. New tanners have a 74% increased risk for melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer compared to people who have never used a tanning bed (Boyles 1).
People who spend more than 50 hours tanning indoors had a threefold increase in risk, with most sessions lasting 20 minutes, and most people going 2-3 times a week, this adds up to approximately 2. 5 years (150 sessions) until someone’s chances of getting the most dangerous form of skin cancer are tripled. As an added piece of evidence, tanning beds can be used at the same intensity every, unlike the sun’s rays which vary throughout the year, even the day (Negative Effects Of Tanning Beds 1), so 30 minutes in a tanning bed is probably around 90 minutes when you’re outside with some sunshine (on an average day).
As stated and explained earlier, new tanners are more susceptible to skin diseases, and this is because a teenager’s skin is not fully developed and therefore adolescent’s skins are more sensitive and will contract illnesses easier than older people. No matter what you may hear at tanning salons, the cumulative damage caused by UV radiation (save for later use) Some people fool themselves into thinking that they’re only doing it for one special occasion such as their wedding or prom Although you might not end up like Brittany with melanoma, you are still likely to end up with skin problems such as premature skin aging.
Tans and sunburns cause photoaging, a term that refers to premature agings of the skin due to exposure to UV radiation. Skin typically develops a texture similar to leather and wrinkles; sagging skin and sunspots can develop and ruin this texture. After long uses, you can start to have skin sagging along with premature wrinkles; age spots, and we certainly don’t want that happening to your beautiful skin. Indoor tanning is slowly starting to become recognized as a harmful thing, and some states and cities have taken steps to prohibit the use of indoor tanning.
As of January 5, 2016, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oregon,* Texas, Vermont, Washington are the only states in America that have banned indoor tanning for minors younger than 18 years (the states with an asterisk around them have allowed adolescents to tan with a doctor’s prescription) (Indoor Tanning Is Not Safe 1). This is potentially a good thing because most teens who go indoor tanning don’t do research about it to find out if it’s bad, by having a state-wide ban, students are not at risk of gaining skin illnesses earlier than expected.
By now, you’ve probably realized that Missouri is not on the list of states that have banned indoor tanning, and maybe this should change because we don’t need or want more illnesses than we already have. If the state of Missouri does not administrate a statewide ban, then perhaps a good idea would be to tax indoor tanning. The country of America already has a 10% tanning bed tax that was implemented in 2010, but perhaps Missouri could add, lets say, an additional 5% tax to discourage indoor tanning even more, and to make some money to help projects across the state and such.
More and more states are starting to recognize indoor tanning as a harmful thing, and this is good because we as a nation could really suppress indoor tanning and its fallouts. Parts of America have gradually regulated indoor tanning and its industry, but some countries are already ahead of the game. Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom have banned indoor tanning for people under 18; Brazil and Austria have gone the full mile and banned it altogether (Indoor Tanning Is Not Safe 1).
It is a good idea that Brazil and Australia banned indoor tanning because those countries have lots of sunshine and warm to hot temperatures year-round. As for what else can or should be done to prohibit indoor tanning from becoming a movement or trend, some things that we could do is more state restriction across our nation or something like PSA commercial’s to try and illustrate an image in people’s heads about the dangers of using a sunbed.
And if you absolutely have to have a tan, you should spray tan rather than indoor tan, according to the AAD (American Academy of Dermatology), the most effective and safest sunless tanning products are spray tans, specifically ones including dihydroxyacetone (DHA). DHA interacts with dead skin cells to create a darker pigment in your skin and it lasts about 5-7 days.
DHA is not absorbed through the skin into the body, but even then it can still be dangerous and has the potential to cause genetic alterations and DNA damage, according to a panel of medical experts who reviewed 10 of the most-current publicly available scientific studies on DHA for ABC News, including a federal report that ABC News acquired. However, one might ask: what could I do to help suppress this movement, I’m a nobody, my voice won’t change anything. All it takes is a small group to spark a revolution, such as the events that occurred at the Boston Tea Party which sparked the American Revolution.
You can start by boycotting tanning salons and using the word-of-mouth technique to tell your friends they should not use sunbeds because they are linked to cancer and can cause premature aging of the skin. If you want to go the extra mile, you and your friends can contact your current state legislator and try to get a law enacted like the ones in the other states that already have bans for minors. Our current district representative for the Missouri House of Representatives is Paul Curtman and you can reach him by phone or e-mail. The number to his office is (573)-751-3776 and his e-mail is Paul.
Curtman@house. mo. gov. Our Missouri State Senate representative is Dave Schatz; his number is (573) 751-3678, and if you want to shoot him a message, use this url: http://goo. gl/ fgcUZR to contact him. Ask yourself if that important event like prom or your wedding is worth sacrificing your appearance later on, or even your life. But nonetheless, if you still want to get a tan fast with without sun tanning, some products to look at are the Kiehl’s Sun Free Self-tanning Formula bottle for $22. 50 or the St. Tropez Self-Tan Bronzing Mousse for $32. 00.
After examining the causes and effects of artificial tanning beds, it will become obvious that this issue is a problem in our country and the use of tanning beds should be limited or stopped. In a world without tanning beds, there would be less skin problems and less cases of skin cancer. I want you to think of anyone you know that goes indoor tanning, or if you don’t know someone who does, keep this in mind for the future. Tell them that indoor tanning can cause premature skin aging, tell them about sagging skin, and tell them that they have an increased chance of getting melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer.
Ending the use of tanning beds is not that hard, a lot of states have banned them for minors, and the state of Missouri can be the next one. The most important thing you can do is boycott tanning salons, tell people you know not to go, and contact your local regional representatives. If our representatives get enough calls and they realize their community thinks it’s a big issue, they will bring it up at the General Assembly of Representatives, and it could have the potential to create a ban statewide.
