With summer in full swing, and temperatures rising steadily, many people are looking forward to spending time outside in the sun, or visiting a tanning salon, to ensure a tan for the summer.
Danijela Lokas is a Carleton University student who spends her work hours and some other leisure time at Santa Fe Sun Skin Care and Tanning in Ottawa.
She describes herself as extremely confident and said she thinks it may be because of her ever-darkening tan.
“I think being tanned represents healthy skin. When you see a nice looking tanned person compared to someone who looks transparent and sick, it’s obvious why people should tan,” Lokas said.
Tanning beds have been a part of Lokas’ beauty regime for the last four years.
“Only about a year and half ago did the rules change so you had to be 18 to tan,” she said. “Luckily I was already 18 by then. But I had been tanning since I was 16, [and] I don’t think it’s a problem.”
Lokas said she thinks tanning is too expensive to be worth spending the money on a child under 16, but that if you’re young and want a tan there should be no problem.
Unfortunately, there are significant risks connected to catching some ultraviolet (UV) rays.
Lisa Hicks, a doctor and general practitioner, explained that UV radiation “damages the DNA in skin cell nuclei, and affects the ability of these cells to repair the damage.”
“It seems that after experiencing severe UV-radiation-induced DNA damage, melanocytes, a type of skin cell, do not die, but instead propagate mutated, damaged genes,” Hicks said.
This is the way sun damage causes rapid uncontrolled duplication of cells, also known as cancer.
Because of this medical understanding of UV rays, tanning beds have come under the light of skepticism in recent years.
In 2009, UV-emitting indoor tanning devices were added to the list of group one carcinogens.
In 2013, Bill 74, The Skin Cancer Prevention Act, passed, which prohibits selling tanning services with UV radiation to people under the age of 18.
Lokas said she knows people have attributed health risks such as cancer to tanning, but she said “people exaggerate the harm of tanning beds, [and] anything in moderation is fine.”
Carleton student, Eleanor Porter, 19, said she has also decided to continue tanning despite the known risks.
“I started tanning before a vacation. My mother told me that it was best to get a tan before you went somewhere where the sun is intense. That’s when I first tried tanning,” Porter said.
The idea of a “base tan” being healthy seems to be a commonly-held belief among both consistent and occasional tanners.
However, Hicks said there is “no truth” to this belief.
“This is a popular misconception, dating back to the 1920s when sun therapy gained popularity as a cure for a number of maladies,” Hicks said.
She said fashion designer Coco Chanel is to blame for “further glamorizing a tan as a status symbol.”
Hicks said that despite the supposed beauty of a tan, “a tan indicates sun damage.”
“It’s true that sunburn is a risk for melanoma and that protecting from it is desirable,” she said, “but tanning beds don’t help. In one study, of those who reported no lifetime sunburns, melanoma patients were four times more likely to have used tanning beds.”
Lokas said she focuses her positive outlook on tanning on the way it makes her feel. “The vitamin D I get from tanning makes me happy,” Lokas said. “I know people who suffer from seasonal depression who’ve been prescribed to tan.”
Lokas said her summer tanning routine consists of tanning outside as much as she can and using tanning oils without sun protection factor (SPF).
She also said she makes her own tanning oil from time to time using olive oil. She uses a tanning bed weekly.
But according to Hicks, the ignorance of risks is “scary stuff” and the dangers of UV radiation are not to be taken lightly.
“Melanoma is the third most common cancer in young Canadian women, [and] second most common in young Ontarians aged 15-34,” Hicks said.
She said she is worried that many women are uneducated or ignorant to the dangers.
“It’s important to know that no tan is healthy,” she said. “My advice is to cover up, avoid midday sun, seek shade, use sunscreens well and often and with sufficient SPF.”
