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| Safe | 11% | 15 votes | Total: 140 votes | |
| Unsafe | 89% | 125 votes |
Safe
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Add to FavoritesThe scare-mongers of the world are doing their best to turn the Caucasians of the Western world into a population of pasty-skinned, sickly looking people.
It's gotten to the point that people are getting paranoid about spending even a few minutes in the sun. Tanning beds are naturally vilified as well because they are an alternative to spending time sun-tanning outside.
If people would bother to research the subject they would see and understand the importance sunshine has as far as our health is concerned. Just like most things in life, too much sun or too much time spent in a tanning bed could be a detriment to a person's health, but on the other hand, depriving ones self the opportunity to boost overall health through sunshine and fresh air is not a wise decision either.
It's no secret that people feel better about themselves when they look better, and there's no doubt people look better when they have a bit of color to their skin. A nice even tan provided by a few minutes per day in the sun or carefully planned appointments in the bed of a tanning salon will do the trick without being detrimental to a person's health.
Over time, pretty well everything we enjoy or that seems even the smallest bit decadent is trashed by some naysayer somewhere in the world. It's usually unhappy people who only feel better when they make others feel unhappy.
It has happened with chocolate, coffee, sugar, meat, eggs, milk and just about anything else you can think of. Yet as time has passed, each of these items has gained acceptance and have actually been found to improve our health one way or another. It seems that it just takes time for scientific research to prove the value that something might have in the big picture when it comes to a healthy lifestyle.
Chocolate has flavanoids, eggs are a great source of fat and protein, coffee keeps us alert, and the sugar in fruit and other carbohydrates help fuel our bodies and keep us healthy.
So yes, I have no doubt that tanning beds are safe as long as they are used wisely. Just like anything else, problems can be created if one happens to over-indulge. Tanning sessions can be as short as 5 minutes and as long as 30 minutes depending on the individual.
Tanning on alternating days as opposed to every day is also a good plan as this helps build a tan over a greater period of time and helps avoid the risk of over doing it.
Learn more about this author, Ray Fauteux.
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Unsafe
Lying down in the sun isn't safe for your skin, and the sun is about 93 millions miles away, so what is the likelihood that lying in a tanning bed, where the impact of the ultra violet rays is greater, will be safe for your skin?! People can kid themselves that if they're just in a tanning bed for a few minutes a day that the risks of them developing skin cancer are not great, but surely over a long period of time this risk increases significantly.
Tannin g beds help to facilitate the production of melanin. This melanin is actually skin damage caused by ultra violet rays, which have been proven to cause all three types of skin cancer; basil cell sarcoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Initially the tanning bed was developed to serve a medicinal purpose in the hope that increased sunlight could help those individuals with rickets and calcium deficiency disorders to develop stronger bones.
However, when some entrepreneurial figure came along and realised there was money to be made from an appearance-obsessed public the tanning bed became more about feeding people's vanity than any tenuous health benefits. Tans were, and still are, in fashion and tanning beds provide individuals with the opportunity to have a year-round tan without having to expose oneself in public and having to rely on the unpredictable weather (in the United Kingdom, at least!)
Not only are you at a greater risk of developing skin cancer from using tanning beds, your skin becomes wrinkly and leathery, helping you to age quicker. This is hardly a sign that tanning beds are good for your skin. You may well have a healthy' glow, but to many people it seems unnatural, and only provides short-term benefits since, after all you have to keep your tan topped-up'.
Indeed, some people find using tanning beds an addictive experience and end up looking excessively orange from overusing tanning beds. Such individuals are sometimes referred to as being tantastic' or tanorexic'. In some ways it easy to mock such individuals because they look so odd, but there are people with real problems who suffer pangs of guilt if they miss a tanning session.
This is why it is important to protect vulnerable, impressionable young people from believing that people look better with a perma-tan rather than just accepting their natural colour. It is only recently that the issue of tanning beds has been raised in the United Kingdom. The government is now leaning towards banning children under eighteen from using tanning beds and ensuring that tanning salons are staffed at all times with staff having to inform customers about potential risks of using tanning beds. This obviously does not preclude the use of tanning beds in individuals' homes, but it does begin to address this seeming obsession with being tanned all year round, and hopefully encouraging young people to think more about their health than their looks.
Learn more about this author, Michelle Wilkinson.
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