Answer to Question #1553 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Q

I am 17 and want to start going to the tanning bed. My mother wants me to research the side effects and then she said that I could make my own decision. The area of conflict I'm having is that everything I read about tanning beds discourages the use of them and makes it out to be horribly hazardous, yet I have friends and know grown women who use the tanning bed regularly and have no known side effects. Can you please explain to me why I'm not seeing any of these side effects take place in my contemporaries?

A

Please see the more detailed information on UV and tanning booths on our Web site, especially the Web sites referenced at the end of that article. As you point out in your question, experts do recommend that tanning booths should be avoided. This does not mean that everyone who uses a tanning booth will have an adverse health effect. Likewise, people who go out in the sunlight unprotected from the UV will not all suffer harmful effects. Of course we should be aware that some harmful effects, like skin cancer, take many years to appear. Expert recommendations are made based on health studies from large groups of people. And among large groups of people, it has been found that there is a significant increase in risk of harmful health effects from UV light. The risk of harmful efects is not 100% even if you are exposed to UV every day, and the risk cannot be reduced to zero even if you competely eliminate UV exposure. But what you can do is minimize your risk by taking reasonable measures such as avoiding unnecessary or excessive exposure. In making individual decisions about health effects and risk it is usually a good idea to consult your own physician to identify risk factors that you should consider in your own personal case. Gary H. Zeman, ScD, CHP