Please be careful with indoor tanning

Posted by: Pepose Vision Institute in Eye Care on January 19, 2015

Centers For Disease Control (CDC) Study Links Thousands Of Eye and Skin Injuries To Indoor Tanning.

This time of the year most people notice how pale they have become and think they would look and feel better with a little “glow”. If a nice trip is not in the near future many may seek a tanning bed as the next best thing.

A newly released study from the CDC shows skin burns are the most common injury and women are more than four times as likely as men to get hurt, probably because they are, by far, the more common practitioners of “indoor tanning,” according to the new research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Younger adults, aged 18-34, sustain well more than half the injuries, again because they are the most frequent users of tanning beds. One in three women between the ages of 16 and 25 uses a tanning bed at least once a year. Skin burns, which accounted for 80% of injuries, were predictably the most common. Almost 10% of injuries were due to fainting; several people described falling asleep while tanning. About 6% of the injuries were on the eyes—mostly eye burns from excessive UV exposure. The acute injuries also increase the risk of long-term problems. Skin burns raise the risk of later skin cancer, and eye burns increase the chances that a person may develop ocular melanoma. The study is the first to gather data on acute injuries from tanning on a national basis. The CDC analyzed 10 years of national injury data and counted more than 6,000 indoor tanning injuries treated in emergency departments in 2003. The number fell pretty steadily after that, to about 2,000 in 2012. The report states; “We saw plenty of eye injuries,” which “is concerning because it’s not only an acute injury but it also puts you at risk for certain conditions down the road, like cataracts or eye melanoma.” Skin cancer cases have been on the rise and the Food and Drug Administration now requires that tanning beds carry health warnings.

Bottom line is over exposure to any form ultraviolet radiation (UV light) has health risks and should be avoided.