Here's another one!
Pale... to be or not to be?
Students tan in artificial lighting despite possible risks such as cancer
NICOLE TROTTA
Staff writer
Article Date: November 01, 2006
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Although summer has come and gone, many University of Wisconsin-Whitewater students plan to stay tan year-round with tanning beds. Senior Dana Holden tans in the winter to keep her skin bronzed.
“I used to burn real bad at the beginning of summer, but now that I’ve gone tanning at indoor places, I am able to tan more often,” Holden said.
Many students see tanning as a form of pampering themselves.
“Tanning relaxes me and puts me in a better mood,” senior Rachel Coolbroth said.
Tanning is a way to Other positive benefits of tanning include vitamin D production and increased bone mineral density, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
However, tanning does come with many risks.
Both tanning outside and indoors can cause skin cancer, but the UV rays that are emitted from tanning beds are two to three times more powerful than the sun’s, according to the American Osteopathic Association. Some types of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, are incurable. The median length of survival of distant metastasis is a mere six to 12 months, and the five-year survival rate is less than 10 percent, according to the Texas Cancer Center.
Freshman Erika Karpen frequently tans in tanning beds, even though she knows it can cause skin cancer. “When I start tanning, I go for about five minutes,” Karpen said. “Each time, I up a minute or two until I can go the full amount without burning. Once I feel that I am tan enough, then I stop going on a regular basis and go just once a week to keep that tan up.”
Although Karpen may feel that tanning once a week does not pose much of a risk, research shows that women who tan in a salon just once per month have a 55 percent greater risk of melanoma than women who do not visit tanning salons, according to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Also, even if a sunburn does not occur from tanning, cancer can still result, according to an article from the Associated Press.
Many students ignore the risks of tanning because they believe that they will not have to worry about them until much later in life.
“I do think tanning is harmful, but it’s a lifestyle choice just like smoking,” sophomore Kari Andersen said. “I look at it that I’m going to die someday anyway, so why not?”
People with this attitude usually do not realize that melanoma is likely to occur at a young age, unlike lung cancer or heart and liver disease.
Melanoma is the second most prevalent cancer in women ages 20 to 35, and the leading cause of cancer death in women ages 25 to 30, according to the Melanoma Center. Adolescents ages 15 to 19 also commonly have melanoma. On the contrary, only 2.4 percent of people diagnosed with liver cancer are under 35, and fewer than 3 percent of lung cancer cases are found in people under 45, according to the American Cancer Society.
Many people still tan because they feel that society puts pressure on them.
“It is much like the pressure to be overly thin,” Marilyn Kile, wellness coordinator for UW-Whitewater’s health center said. “It is an unhealthy, artificial standard of appearance.”
Coolbroth said she felt pressure from her high school classmates to tan.
“I first started tanning in high school because it was ‘the cool thing to do.’ Everyone at my high school was so obsessed with the way they looked and had to go tanning to be cool,” she said.
But only in the past decades has being tan become so appealing. In the 19th century and earlier, being pale was desirable because it defined your place in society.
Sophomore Sean McCrimmon is one student who does not feel pressure to tan.
“I have never tanned in my life,” he said. “It’s a personal choice; I just wouldn’t do it at all.”
There are still options for people who are desperate to get a tan without the associated risks. tanning creams is a safe way to get a healthy glow. If applied correctly, they should produce a natural-looking tan.
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