Truth: All forms of tanning are not safe. Direct sun exposure and tanning beds can and do cause cancer because you are being exposed to UV radiation.

Last week after talking to client who mentioned that she is still tanning in tanning bed. I was surprised that this service is still popular. I thought that the rise of skin cancer and alternative method of spray tanning killed it for tanning beds. So I decide to search the web and see what’s going on with tanning industry, and I was in shock from what I read on their advertising campaigns for tanning beds. It is like they know it is bad, bad they try to justify it. One of the businesses is even saying that “yes we know it is cancerogenic and bad for you but so are cigarettes and wine’’. They call all the researches that had proved negative effects of tanning “absurd”. How messed up is this?!

Tanning beds use lamps that emit mostly UVA rays, with smaller doses of UVB rays. UVA lamps emit UVA radiation that is three times more intense than UVA radiation in natural sunlight. Tanning Salons advertise that UVA lamps are the way to go if you are looking to get beautiful, even, bronze tan. They claim that UVA lamps:

Here is the deal, technicality it is true. Tanning Salons are not lying about certain things. Overexposure to UVB rays, which affect the surface layers of skin, quickly causes the skin to burn. The use of UVA lamps will prevent burning of the skin and it will tan your skin on the deeper level, creating the bronze-brown tan that will last longer.

But here is what they are not saying: UVA rays, are “aging rays” meaning they are number one cause of premature aging of the skin. They do penetrate deeper than UVB rays into the skin, causing damage to cells’ DNA and destroying collagen and elastin fibers in your skin, leading to wrinkly and saggy skin.