Skin Cancer Isn't Sexy

By sarajean on 6/10/10 1:48am
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No matter how many studies I cite, pictures of melanoma I send, or alternatives I offer, my friends and family who tan—tan on purpose, that is—refuse to cease and desist. I know people who purchase plans to receive weekly—even daily!—tanning sessions. They pay for this UV exposure! I know others who actually own their own tanning beds, either in their homes or places of business.

Off to those pre-casket lighted beds they dash, eager to darken their skin colors, make themselves more sex-ay, and prepare themselves for their apparent roles in the next Gidget film.

And, of course, get skin cancer.

Seriously, would you really, consciously, pay for cancer? Would you buy a cancer-inflicting machine, put it in your home, and purposefully lie down in it often? If someone in a trench coat crept up to you, cancer cells in a test tube, and offered you a smokin’ deal to buy the cancer and have it injected into your body for one low monthly price, would you exclaim, “Why, certainly, sir, and give my employees/daughters/sisters/friends a dose while you’re at it, will you?”

Essentially, that’s what we’re doing when we tan—or pay for our loved ones to tan. Here are a few quick facts:

  • Indoor tanning doubles your risk of skin cancer. While your mom and her mom and her mom’s mom might have told you that it was safer than the sun, the truth is that we now know such reasoning is a load of crap.
  • The more hours you spend tanning, the more you increase your risk of cancer. Well, that makes sense, given the previous fact, right? Simple math and all.
  • Young people, age 35 or younger, who use tanning beds regularly have an eightfold higher risk of getting skin cancer compared to those who do not use tanning beds.
  • More than one million people are diagnosed with skin cancer every year in the United States. Hundreds of thousands still continue to use tanning beds, many while knowing the risks.
  • The light rays that tanning beds emit are more powerful than the sun’s own rays. These artificial rays are actually two to three times more powerful than the sun’s rays.

So the next time you’re trying to get that Jessica Alba glow, please remember just what you are doing to your body—and that fair skin (hello, Nicole Kidman and Amy Adams) can be just as beautiful. 

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