Burning. Scorching. Overexposure. Intense. Hot. Boiling. Heat. Artificial. Cosmetic.
These are the words that fly through my mind as I stand inside my apartment complex in Muncie and look through the book of appointments to use the tanning bed. Nearly every hour a person is signed up. Outside of my complex is a series of signs, one that reads, "FREE TANNING." Going through Muncie, I pass by three more tanning bed buildings. The sign underneath one of the names reads, "10 for $30."
How many people, boys and girls, did I see this previous semester who walked around with orange "tan" skin? Seeing as it was winter for half the semester it was obvious the tans hadn't come from being outside. How many people did I hear say, "Well afterwards I'm going to go tanning." And the other person would response. "Oh, I'll come too."
In our day in age, it's sociably acceptable to give ourselves cancer in any shape or form.
It seems to me that half of our notion of beauty in America is being tan. It makes you look healthier, full of life and color, and makes your muscles seem more toned.
A tanning bed is a device emitting ultraviolent radiation, 95 percent of it being UVA and 5 percent being UVB used to produce an artificial tan. The lamps placed in the tanning beds, which usually ranges from about 24 to 60 lamps per bed, have watts from 100-200 watts.
Generally in America, tanning beds are used as a way to receive a base tan before jumping into the summer time or visits to beaches. They are generally used from January to June.
However in Europe, it is quite different. Because the weather has less sunshine, Europeans tend to tan year round. They use a different type of lamp, with UVB ratings in 1 percent to 3 percent range whereas tanning beds in America use 4 percent to 6.5 percent UVB ratings.
The tanning bed UV radiation causes three different types of cancer: malignant melanoma - which develops in skin cells that give the skin pigmentation - basal cell carcinoma - which causes red lumps on the skin - and squamous cell carcinoma -which causes pink lumps on the skin that often bleed.
Somehow, when most people hear things such as tanning causes cancer, it washes right over their heads. Oh, well that's just an extreme; that would never happen to me, many people think.
Also, some people think there are positive side effects to tanning. Many people, who have seasonal affective disorder, a disorder which may occur because of lack of melatonin which aids in the production of serotonin (our "happy" producing neurotransmitter), think that tanning simply cheers them up. There is something about being in the warmth and heat that just makes people feel good, which is enough of a reason for them to swish aside cancer for short-term fulfillment. Why don't people just put a sweater and drink hot chocolate? Why don't people take hot showers or go to hot tubs? Why don't people sit by a fire, wrapped up in a fleece blanket? It's silly to think that there aren't different ways to make ourselves feel warm and "happy" during the wintertime.
How many times have I also heard that tanning beds open your pores, which may clear up your skin? While this may be true, there are much better ways to receive healthy clear skin, such as eating avocadoes or drinking green tea, simple things that not only clear up your skin, but also are inexpensive and healthy.
And of course, how could I forget that argument that tanning beds are healthier than tanning outside? The argument: light from a tanning bed contains 40 percent less UVB rays than light from the sun, therefore getting rid of the burning UVB rays. This is all still a theory. Research still says that UVA rays still are penetrating the skin and literally obliterate skin fibers.
And in the long run, while it may be nice to be tan and beautiful now while we're all young prospering college students ready to conquer the world, the reality is most of us are going to live to grow older. And who wants to be the kind of person who is forty years old, and appears to be sixty, with wrinkly and crinkled skin? Really, when you are lying in a hospital bed, in treatment for skin cancer in twenty years, the doctor isn't going to say to you, "well, they really did have nice tan skin when they were younger."
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