Indoor Tanning Salons: What Went Wrong?

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The billion dollar indoor tanning industry faced one of the greatest challenges a trade could ever face. During the last quarter of 2005, an article was published in one of the issues of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology that accused indoor tanning salons of using tanning beds and lamps that emit UV rays that may cause skin cancer. Although the article was not based on solid facts and there were no evidences to support its claim, consumers' reaction to it was brutal. Because the article was published in a scholarly journal it gave it considerable weight that negatively affected the indoor tanning industry. The Indoor Tanning Association (ITA) was up at arms as they dealt with the backlash of the article, which threatened the then $2 billion industry.

Back then, the ITA had the tenacity to fight back against the claims that indoor tanning beds and lamps are not harmful and does not place the user at the risk of developing skin cancer. That was then. Now, more than four years later, indoor tanning beds and lamps are considered carcinogens. The cancer research division of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), has confirmed the claims of the aforementioned article. They found, through rigorous research and study that tanning beds and lamps do produce UV rays that can precipitate skin aging and cause damage to the skin's immune system, which can eventually lead to skin cancer.


Further research shows that because indoor tanning beds and lamps produce UV rays that are directed on the skin at a close distance, they expose the skin to a much greater concentration of UV rays, making them even more harmful than rays from the sun. Because of these proven facts, the IARC has classified these devices from "probably carcinogenic to humans" to "carcinogenic to humans." Hence, there is no more doubt that the use, especially the regular use, of indoor tanning beds and lamps are bad for your health.

As expected, the indoor tanning industry has suffered a lot from the publication of these findings. However, like most successful industries, they have already recovered from this major mishap. Aside from making tanning beds and lamps safer, they have also funded research that paved the way for the successful introduction of sunless tanning technology in the market. Yes, the sunless tanning lotions, creams and sprays that you now find in department stores and supermarkets are the product of the evolution of the indoor tanning industry. Whereas before, you need to go to tanning salons to have that perfect tan, now, you can buy it in a tube and do it at home. The popularity of self tanning, through the use of sunless tanning products, is proof that the indoor tanning industry has bounced back from the calamity of investing in "carcinogens."


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