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9 Secrets Tanning Salons Don't Want You to Know

Indoor tanning can cost you your healthy skin and your life, so how are these salons staying in business? Find out

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Tanning indoors is more dangerous than tanning outdoors

One of the most common spiels you'll hear at the tanning salon is that if you're going to tan, it's "smarter" to do so in a bed as opposed to outdoors. Tanning salon employees like Heather Carrillo, who worked at a salon for a year and a half, say they are taught in their "Smart-Tan Certification" to "never say indoor tanning is 'safe' [but] to say it is 'smart.' Obviously getting a tan is not safe, so the selling point is that in a bed you can monitor the exact amount of exposure as opposed to tanning outside where the UV percentages change every day."

So is this true? Is tanning indoors smarter that outdoors due to the "controlled environment" of a bed? David E. Bank, MD, a dermatologist and educational spokesperson for The Skin Cancer Foundation, says no. In fact, he maintains that it's quite the opposite -- tanning indoors is actually more dangerous to the health of your skin because "you're getting a much higher concentration of the longer wavelength UVA, which damages more deeply into the skin" than being out in the sun. And research backs him up. "Frequent tanners using new, high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure" and are "74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors," says The Skin Cancer Foundation.

See Next Page: "Tanorexia" is a real disease

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I need to stay away from the tanning beds...great article!

by glamgirlseven Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 10:21PM Report as inappropriate

i barely tan anymore... now that my skin looks so much better and smoother . i always thught going tanning will be the answer to fixing my blemishes and have that illusion to making me thin... NOw before i think about tanning i think it may look good now but how about when im 40 thats 4 years away. So this is very insightful i always thought it was a scam.. your basically microwaving your insides the problems may not come over night maybe in form of a burn but the long term effects.... yuck. id rather have a leather purse not leather arms thank you but no thank you !!!

by tanje_zammiello Monday, May 14, 2012 at 02:58PM Report as inappropriate

When the salon I worked in got tanning beds, we had to go to a class to learn how to operate them and time exposure limits. I remember like it was yesterday, our instructor's very first words were, " there is NO such thing as a safe tan and that absolutlely includes tanning beds!" We know so much more now about the dangers of the beds. My advice, spray on!

by Crystal0107 Wednesday, May 2, 2012 at 02:22PM Report as inappropriate