But teens aren't drawn to the array of self-tanning lotions or machines that spray on liquid tans without the cancer or wrinkle risk. Loren Porter, 16, says self-tanners don't match the golden glow of a real tan.
Cancer link
Porter, whose latte-hued skin is helped along with a tanning booth, says teens jumped on the tanning trend because it is within their means. "In high school, we can't buy Prada shoes or bags, but we can afford to get tan." Tanning costs about $6 per session, or less for bulk packages.
Many of Porter's friends tan just for school dances, she says, but for others, the fashion statement has turned into an obsession.
"There are girls at school we call tanorexic," says the spiral-haired Shoreline teen. "They are obsessed with tanning, they go in the beds every day and, oh my God, it's so gross, they look so dark it's like walking skin cancer."
Exactly, say dermatologists armed with statistical warnings: A study last year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found tanning-bed use was linked to a 2.5 times increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma and a 1.5 times increased risk for basal cell cancer, the most common forms of cancer.
The younger people started, the more their risk increased. Though these cancers are highly curable, they kill 2,200 people in the U.S. per year, predispose victims to other cancers and often leave disfiguring scars. Earlier research links tanning beds to melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
Skin-cancer rates have risen steadily since the tanning boom of the 1970s. Melanoma, usually seen in older men, increased by 60 percent among women ages 15 to 29 over the past three decades. And basal cell and squamous cell cancers are increasing at a rate of about 5 percent per year.
The American Academy of Dermatology has lobbied for laws limiting minors' access to tanning beds. Requiring parental consent for young teens is a common practice in some salons, but it's not a law in Washington.
UV rays are UV rays
Joseph Levy, vice present of the International Smart Tan Network, the tanning-salon trade group, likens the issue to the sex-education debate. If authorities tell kids to abstain from tanning, they won't listen, so adults should instead allow teens to use tanning beds, which he says are safer than the sun.
Tanning beds filter out much of the sun's ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, the type of radiation that causes skin to burn and blister and is considered largely to blame for melanoma. Instead, the bulbs emit UVA rays several times more intense than the sun. These rays penetrate deeper into the skin, and that's why people are able to get much darker in a tanning bed than they otherwise would without burning. A 20-minute tanning session equals a full day at the beach.
Tanned skin is less likely to burn, Levy argues, so this gives people built-in sun protection when they are exposed to the real thing.
Curt Jennings, owner of four Midnight Sun tanning salons in Puget Sound, says many of his customers come in to develop a base tan before vacation so they don't burn on their first day at the beach.
Jenna's mother, Julie O'Keeffe, who also tans indoors, says she'd rather have her daughter in the tanning bed than the sun. "I think they are safer, and I'm not overly worried about it because she doesn't do it to excess."
While dermatologists agree that preventing a sunburn is rule No. 1, they blanch at the notion of tanning as a preventive measure.
Ultraviolet radiation — whether from the sun or tanning beds — was added last year to the federal government's list of cancer-causing substances.
"Getting UV radiation in a tanning salon in order to protect yourself from UV radiation doesn't make a lot of sense," says Dr. Daniel Berg, a dermatologist at the University of Washington, who compares tanning beds to filtered cigarettes — you think they're safer so you tan/smoke more and are exposed to even more carcinogens.
Unheeded advice
Irwin, who has a large cosmetic dermatology practice at Madison Skin and Laser Center, says when she sees a gaggle of bronzed teens, she sees her future clientele for collagen, Botox and laser-peel treatments.
The deep-penetrating UVA rays in tanning beds are most responsible for wrinkling and sagging skin.
"I call tanning beds wrinkle booths because if you want your skin to be completely wrinkly, leathery and blotchy by your 30s, then go tanning," she says.
But such appeals lose the battle of instant gratification versus delayed consequences.
"A lot more people notice you when you are tan," says Jessica Jensen. "I'm only 15 years old, once I'm like 20 I'll start worrying about wrinkling."
Nor is she worried about skin cancer. "People have warned me about skin cancer, but I haven't seen it among my friends so I don't think it's a very popular disease."
Hannah Bartholomew, a 17-year-old from Seattle who occasionally uses a tanning booth, feels almost sorry for the poor adults whose warnings go unheeded. "It's not that we don't hear them. If that message wasn't out there I'd probably be in tanning beds all the time and would never wear sunscreen," she says.
But she says she's not so convinced that she'll quit altogether. "I feel healthier when I have a little color in my face, which I know is kind of ironic because it's not exactly healthy to get wrinkles and skin cancer." |
