As many parts of the country, including the campus of Penn State, transition in to fall, I am beginning to see more boots and sweaters and fewer shorts and flip flops. The trees are changing color and we are beginning to feel the first nippy touches of the winter to come. The other day I noticed my own sun-bleached hair becoming brown. But more importantly, I noticed how absolutely pale I looked. Summer tans only linger if they are not completely gone. Now is when many people break out the self-tanning lotion or run to get a spray tan. Some even turn to tanning booths. But aren’t those dangerous? I am one of many who prefers being tan but I have always been warned against tanning booths. Is there really any truth behind these warnings? How are tanning booths harmful and how much actual harm do they inflict? 

The most common concern is that bed tanning can lead to melanoma, which, according to Medline Plus, “is the most serious type of skin cancer”. Dr. Jeffrey Gershenwald says in an article of The New York Times that a majority of melanoma cases are due to exposure to UV. UV waves, or ultra violet waves, are given off by the sun and are known to increase risk of damage to DNA or other cells. These waves are given off by tanning beds. Gershenwald claims that “there’s no longer a question of whether UV is important”, meaning it is definitely harmful. One recent controlled case-study, published by Oxford University Press, tested this idea on a variety of participants. They tested the effects of indoor tanning on those who had never been sunburned before, those who had tanned in an indoor bed before without burning, and those who had never tanned in a bed. Despite the different UV exposure levels, it was proven that each group’s risk of melanoma was increased. Another study, conducted by DeAnn Lazovich, came up with the same results. Lazovich used 1,167 participants with melanoma and 1,101 without. The patients without melanoma were the control side of the experiment. Her results showed that 63% of the melanoma patients and 51% of the healthy participants had tanned in a tanning bed before. This data also strongly supports the alternative hypothesis that bed tanning causes melanoma. This case is one of those situations where the cause-and-effect are found without a mechanism. As the American Cancer Society states, although risk-increasing factors of melanoma have been discovered, “it’s not yet clear exactly how these factors cause melanoma”.   However, I think we may be able to say it is proven as far as science can prove anything that UV light given off by tanning beds increases the risk of melanoma.