Tanning Beds...how harmful are they?

Hi, Dr. Zorba Pastor here.

You all know that health news moves fast, but confusion moves even faster.

So let's take a breath and start out what's really going on with my rapid response update

concerning tanning beds.

I've gotten the question many, many times, is one tanning session before the prom really

that dangerous?

Well, it sounds like a harmless question, and it is, but it's sort of like smoking a pack

of cigarettes is that dangerous.

The answer is, whenever you use a tanning bed, you're always running a risk.

And is that risk too much?

It all depends.

You, as a parent, should be the one if your child is under 18 to determine exactly whether

or not you're willing to take risk.

Now back in 2015, the FDA was approached by a number of people to put in a nationwide

ban for people using a tanning bed under the age of 18.

I think once you're at the age of 18, it's your choice, and you can do whatever you want

to.

But I think just like we know that tobacco cigarettes are known carcinogen.

We also know that tanning beds are known carcinogens.

So whether or not they were actually going to put this rule into effect, it's hard to

tell.

It's been going at a glacial, glacial pace.

It turns out that a number of states, such as California, Texas, Illinois, and Minnesota,

say no tanning beds for miners, no matter what, period.

And there are a number of states, like Wisconsin, that say no tanning under the age of 16, 16

and 17-year-olds can use a tanning bed as long as they have written parental consent.

The parent doesn't have to come in, the parent just has to sign the document.

I've been a teenager, you've been a teenager, sometimes you can get your parents to sign

the document, and sometimes well, did the parent really sign the document, they actually

don't have to check on that.

I'll leave you to decide whether or not that happens at all.

So we know that tanning beds are known carcinogens.

A tanning bed can actually deliver two to five times the UV radiation that you get and

a midday sun at the equator.

So 10 or 15 minutes, you're getting the equivalent of hours of tanning if you were outside.

And most of that is UVA, the kind that goes deep into the skin, damages DNA and increases

cancer risk.

And right now, it appears that men and women, but women more likely than men are three times

more likely to get melanoma, the kind of skin cancer that you can kill you at a younger

age if they have used a tanning bed.

So the question is, what shall we do?

Well, first of all, let's look at Washington for a minute and let's look at the idea

of our FK, of let's make America healthy again.

Well, let's make America healthy again means not using tanning beds.

Why tanning beds are a new invention?

And if you want to be healthy, you should stay out of the sun.

We know that.

But we know that tanning beds are far more dangerous than going out in the sun.

So let's be specific, tanning beds have not been on RFK's radar, if you will, maybe

because there are lots of lobbyists behind the tanning bed industry.

I don't know, just putting it out there as a possibility.

All I know is that in 2015, they've been working on this at the federal level and they have

failed.

And our FK, make America healthy again, has not stepped in and say, wait a minute, we should

stop getting tanning, we should stop using tanning beds.

So back to the question of should you use it for the prime?

Well, spray tans are much safer than a tanning bed.

And I think that's the bottom line.

We should protect our children from possible cancer.

Now once you're 18 years of age or older, if you know that tanning beds actually cause

cancer and you've got that information, you have a right to do that.

Just like you have a right to smoke cigarettes and drive too fast on highways, you have a

right to do that, even though we know that smoking cigarettes is bad for you.

And driving too fast on highways is bad for you and the other people that are there.

So once you're 18, it's your choice.

Protect our children, protect them from tanning beds.

This is Dr. Zorba Pastor, stay well.