Guest AuthorI’ve been instructed by my editor that referring to Florida as the “Sunshine State” is a cliché — a goofy term that is out of place in columns about momentous political happenings. Likely so.
But here’s a case where the term is fitting: Florida, the state named for its sunshine, has more tanning beds than it does McDonalds or CVS pharmacies. It has the ratio of tanning salons per capita that would not even be excusable in the most bleak, seasonal-affective-disordered corner of the country.
Sen. Eleanor Sobel wants to change that, or at least, to reduce the volume of young people who seek the perfect tan in these places. Her efforts are worthwhile.
Overexposure to UV rays through tanning devices greatly increases the chances of developing skin cancers, including melanoma, later in life.
For years now, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have designated tanning beds as carcinogenic to humans — the highest cancer risk category.
In 2009, scientists from nine countries evaluated data and determined that the risk of melanoma increases by 75 percent when use of tanning beds begins before age 30.
This is the same population that tanning salons attract.
More than one million people go to tanning salons each day, and of them, about 70 percent are white women between the ages of 16 and 29.
Further, the cancer risk from sunbeds has been found to be more than double that of spending the same amount of time lying out in the midday Mediterranean sun.
Sobel’s measure, SB 572, would prevent minors from using tanning salons unless prescribed to do so by a healthcare provider and given parental consent.
According to a survey of 6,881 tanners, only about 11 percent said they visited salons on the advice of their doctor.
I was one of them.
During the summer of 2002, I started to break out in big, painful hives on any part of my skin that was exposed to the sun. After weeks of steroids and antihistamines in vain, I was given an answer. I had “polymorphous light eruptions” that could be treated by short but regular visits to a tanning bed. I did so for a few months, and it worked. I liked that my glowing look was justified by more than vanity.
But now, I’m learning that my short-term fix may have set me up for long-term problems.
Just one decade after my sun-sensitivity was resolved, I’ve had numerous moles surgically excised due to atypical biopsy results.
I tanned about a dozen times. But that’s nothing compared with young women who buy prepaid yearlong tanning salon memberships, or regularly follow workouts with a rest under the sunlamps.
Weighing long-term consequences isn’t the forte of most young people. The decision to expose oneself to harmful rays should be treated no differently than that of cigarette smoke, tattoos, or the sundry other things that we try to keep away from minors.
Even in — or especially in — the Sunshine State.
