Here at RESCU, we love to appear tanned, but we prefer the safe tan that comes from a bottle. Here, we reveal the scary truth about solariums, thanks to Simon Chapman, the University of Sydney’s Professor of Public Health.
Q: True or false? Solariums are safe.
A: False.
The truth is: A 2007 review concluded that sun-bed tanning is associated with a 22 percent increased risk of developing melanoma, with up to 98 percent increased risk among those who had their first sessions at younger than 35.
Simon Chapman reveals why we should avoid solariums
“After the very public death of 26-year-old solarium customer Clare Oliver from melanoma in September 2007, health authorities introduced mandatory rules for solariums.
Health authorities, journalists and the public had been jolted out of complacency. Solariums were not like spray tan studios, catering to fashion victims. They were cancer incubators. The days of voluntary codes were allegedly over. No under-18s, no pale-skinned customers. Limited exposure time. The industry quaked in fear.
Now, thanks to a recent NSW Health Department audit, we know that this has been treated as a joke across the sun-bed industry. Eighty-seven of 89 Sydney solariums have ignored the rules. Here we have a vanity-servicing industry that, with no irony, charges the IQ-challenged to lie inside an uninviting coffin-like box and baste under intense ultra-violet radiation.
While Cancer Institute campaigns gamely try to drill home the ghastly realities of melanoma, coin-operated, self-serve booths are out there now, ready to dose you, no questions asked.
Clare Oliver’s dying wish is being violated daily by this travesty. While her public death made good television, there has been virtual silence on this report about the disgraceful aftermath.
In 2006, 1238 Australians were diagnosed with melanoma – 3870 were under 60, and 2044 were under 40. In all, 1238 died, 335 aged under 60. Sun exposure was responsible for most of this, but the sun is rather more difficult to regulate. Solariums expose people to turbocharged UV doses that have no place in any community that takes cancer prevention seriously.
So why do we tolerate solariums? This is a gnat-sized industry that could be squashed with barely a whimper of protest about lost jobs. Have people switch to spray tans to satisfy their tanning fetish.”
Simon Chapman is a professor of public health at the University of Sydney. Read more of his commentary in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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