Being a girl in state college who loves to tan, of course one of the first things I did here was sign up for a monthly package of indoor tanning. I tan indoors in my hometown too, and I used to wear w
ink-ease, which were little disposable eye protections for your eyes while tanning. Within the past year or so, I stopped wearing eye protection. I recently went to the eye doctor because my sight has gotten so much worse, and I think it is because of the lack of eye protection when tanning. So, I set to find out.
When you think about it, people always wear sunglasses to protect their eyes, so why not wear something when tanning indoors? It is the same idea. According to the Health Physics Society, tanning indoors exposes eyes 100x more than the sun does to ultraviolet radiation. In the tanning bed, the ultraviolet radiation has direct contact with your eyes. Photokeratitis is a short-term issue for your eyes from tanning. It is when your eyesight becomes hazy, your eyelid swells, there is eye tearing, and pain. Eye cancers can also be caused by indoor tanning, as well as skin cancers.
Another effect of UV light on the eye could be pterygium, which is when the conjunctiva grows on the surface of the eye. It could become harder for one to see because the pterygium now goes over the middle of the cornea, which is what you see out of. You can get rid of this through surgery, but it can keep coming back.
Philip R. Rizzuto, MD, from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, stated, “UV damage to the eyes may result in the development of cataracts . . . as well as cancer of the uvea, which is the middle layer of tissue under the white of the eye,”. (Eye Smart) Another problem that can occur is you can get a corneal flash burn. This is when a lot of UV rays cause your cornea to burn. The eye will then become watery, hazy, painful, red, or the eyesight could become worse.
Not many studies have been done on indoor tanning and eye damage. Scientists say it is harmful, but no actual studies (worthy of commenting on) have really been done. If I were a scientist researching this field, I would conduct a controlled experiment. It would not be able to be a double blind procedure because the controlled group would know if they had eye protection or not while tanning. I would get a large group of people, maybe 400, and test their eyesight. They all must have 20/20 vision and be in good health. They would all tan three times a week in the same level bed. Half of them would wear eye protection and the other half would not. After a month, an optometrist would check their vision once more. They would then report who’s vision worsened and who’s did not. This would be a very good way to test my hypothesis.
Next time you want to hit the tanning bed, think about how it could be affecting not only your whole body, but your eyes as well. After doing my research on this post, I think I have decided not to sign up for tanning next month…
Works Cited:
- http://www.who.int/uv/faq/uvhealtfac/en/index3.html
- http://valleyeyecareaz.com/what-indoor-tanning-can-do-to-your-eye-health/
- http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/28/pf/taxes/tanning-tax/
- http://blog.coolibar.com/tanning-bed-legislation-where-are-we-now/
- http://awomanshealth.com/just-say-no-to-indoor-tanning/
Your blog topic definitely screams originality! It is unfortunate that there have not been any studies conducted on this because I could only imagine the harmful chemicals used during indoor tanning. Since I know very little about indoor tanning, I’m glad I could learn about it from a scientific perspective. I loved the creativity in your study idea, however my concern is that it is not that realistic. Although I see why you would want to start with people who have perfect vision, taking participants who only have 20/20 vision would not be the right representation for the average person who tans. Instead, I would take people who have all different visions. THEN, for whoever does find problems with their eyesight after tanning, investigate the possible variables that it could be caused from. After doing some research, it was scary to find out that there is a 59% increase in one’s risk of melanoma when it comes to indoor tanning. Here’s the site that I found to be extremely eye-opening to read.
After reading your blog I was glad to hear that you have decided not to sign up for next month. Many people know the consequences of tanning indoors and even outdoors but they don’t understand how severe the damage can be. I have never been into a tanning salon but i was curious to know if they have any warning upon entering or is there some kind paper that says the consequences of tanning before one signs up to do it. I believe this could be very important and a way of letting the costumers know what they are at risk of. Cigarettes boxes contain a warning label and so should tanning salons if they dont have them already. If not then i believe it’s smart of those people to look up what kind of damage it can do. A great website to try is the FDA website. It says all the consequences of tanning.
Growing up, my sister and my mom would always fight about my sisters insistance on tanning indoors, so it was super interesting to read a post about the topic rooted in facts and science.
I had always assumed that tanning indoors would not be much more harmful than tanning under the natural sun, but I guess I was wrong. While your post goes into detail about why indoor tanning is harmful, I think you could possibly expand more on tanning in natural conditions to bring home your argument/point.
Overall, really good post!
This is an exceedingly interesting topic. Not because I am interested in tanning, but I am interested in the behavior that some individuals possess that result in them performing some sort of behavior that is, usually, more than harmful to their overall health. Take smoking, for example. There are clear risks associated with smoking, yet people still do it. There are clear risks associated with prolonged exposure/routine in regards to tanning, yet people still do it. For this reason, I am sure that experiments–mostly observational–will be possible for years to come concerning this topic.
This blog was really interesting to me since I’ve heard about the harmful effects of indoor tanning but not about how it could be harmful to your eyesight. In my personal experience, I have never had the need to do indoor tanning but now I know for sure that if I do protecting my eyes would be really important. Here is a link to a webpage where you can also see the many other harmful effects of indoor tanning. https://www.aad.org/media-resources/stats-and-facts/prevention-and-care/dangers-of-indoor-tanning
Your blog topic definitely screams originality! It is unfortunate that there have not been any studies conducted on this because I could only imagine the harmful chemicals used during indoor tanning. Since I know very little about indoor tanning, I’m glad I could learn about it from a scientific perspective. I loved the creativity in your study idea, however my concern is that it is not that realistic. Although I see why you would want to start with people who have perfect vision, taking participants who only have 20/20 vision would not be the right representation for the average person who tans. Instead, I would take people who have all different visions. THEN, for whoever does find problems with their eyesight after tanning, investigate the possible variables that it could be caused from. After doing some research, it was scary to find out that there is a 59% increase in one’s risk of melanoma when it comes to indoor tanning. Here’s the site that I found to be extremely eye-opening to read.
I like who you decided to design your own experiment when known were readily available for you to cite. The main problem I see with the study is a problem of ethics. If scientists already say that tanning with no protection is harmful, it will be hard to justify the sacrifice of someones eyesight for the experiment.