No thanks, I’ll sunburn the old-fashioned way

 Posted by on 2 May 2009  Modern Life
May 022009
 

tanning-bed

Tanning beds have always looked vaguely threatening to me — their gaping, clamshell maw, their otherworldly glow, their pod-like appearance when closed … shudder!

Plus, all that cancer talk! But now I’m feeling even more squeamish about them. A 10-year-old girl was reportedly hospitalized — just two minutes away from needing skin grafts — after spending too long in a tanning bed. She has been warned to stay out of direct sunlight for 10 years (!)

Grant Hamilton

  • Colin Corneau

    They’re actually kinda comforting. I don’t tan a lot, tried it once before I went to Cuba so I wouldn’t be fish-belly white (and die of sunburn down there).

    Interestingly, I felt good mood-wise too – although this was in the depths of a depressing Manitoba winter…nowhere to go but up from there, I guess.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      I’ve heard that, actually — about the use of high-intensity lights to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder. But I’ve also read that using them to prevent burning doesn’t always work. The problem is that the tanning beds use lower-intensity UV rays to promote tanning instead of burning. But the sun gives off the full spectrum of rays. And if your skin only changes in response to one form of UV radiation, you’re still unprotected from the other forms.

      Moderation in all things, I suppose — including moderation.

  • Colin Corneau

    Yeah…UV-A vs. UV-A plus UV-B.

    Moderation is good yes. I just liked actually being warm, and maybe the light helped increase serotonin or something, too. As a very white man, it’s just kind of a mood-uptick to not be fishbelly white for a little while.
    Also Vitamin D production to think of, too.

  • Alawna

    I don’t get how laying on a coffin of tubular light bulbs is relaxing,I for one think I’d be quite stressed. I don’t do well with sun though, I break out in a pebbly rash, and I am kind of claustrophobic. Just seems like it wouldn’t be my thing. I’ll sunburn the old way too.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Amy Breen

    Tanning beds, in my opinion, are nasty. They often just leave people with a gross orange colour. Ick.

  • Stumpy

    I think lights have to have more lux than tanning beds in order to affect clinical SAD. Something like 10,000 lux or higher, while tanning beds are around 2500?

    Anyway, unmanned tanning booths sound like a world of trouble. In addition to kids like this one screwing around, adults aren’t always good at obeying the safety guidelines. I know of some people in Brandon who were “banned” from tanning salons because they went waaaayy too often and were putting themselves in a risky situation.