Tanning Beds Essay

As the popularity of tanning beds severely increases, so does the rate of young people diagnosed with skin cancer. Tanning beds are used by more than 30 million Americans around the world and 2.3 million of those are teens. While using tanning beds, the teens are exposing themselves to a deadly skin cancer, called melanoma. The rate of melanoma has increased drastically over the last forty years. Multiple states have banned indoor tanning and a number of states have strengthened their constraints on minors tanning in their salons. Although keeping tanning beds legal provides a level of financial protection to those who own them, making them illegal would ultimately protect the health of all consumers. On September 8, 1986, “the FDA became concerned with the potential for injury, in tanning beds, since use of the products had resulted in several injuries, ranging from ‘severe sunburn’ from overexposure to the ultraviolet radiation to cuts from broken lamps” (“Training and Certification...

These rays absorb into the skin and can lead to a cancer called melanoma. According to Alexandra Sifferlin, “The FDA reports that people who are exposed to radiation from indoor tanning are 59% more likely to develop melanoma compared to people who have never used indoor tanning before.” Because of this kind of radiation, using indoor tanning increases the rate of cancer by over 50%. Whenever people get melanoma by exposing themselves to these rays, it starts in one place and can spread to many different parts of the body. Whenever it spreads, it starts to become fatal because the whole body is affected with the disease. “This type of cancer kills an estimated 10,130 people in the US just annually.” When people absorb the rays, their skin becomes darker. As the skin becomes darker, tanning becomes addicting to tanning bed customers because of the darker