Prom season, summer vacation or anytime tanning parlors are open, parents may start wondering if there are dangers to teens tanning. The answer is simple, but the reasons are not.
What Does Tanning Do, Anyway?
Tanning is a process where the ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun or a tanning bed affect the skin and its parts. The melanin in the skin changes from the effects of UV rays, making the skin appear darker or tan.
UV rays and tanning harm the skin and the body in various ways. Some of these effects of tanning include:
Teens and Tanning Dangers
The effects of tanning might not seem important, but the damage that UV rays cause can have deadly after effects.
Cataracts and more. UV rays that are allowed to reach the eyes can cause many issues. You can get a kind of “sunburn of the eyes” where the outermost layer of the eye itself (the conjunctiva) becomes burned. This is quite painful but does not seem to lead to significant side effects. The conjunctiva can also develop growths or cancers due to exposure to UV rays. Cataracts are also formed by exposure of the eye to UV rays. The World Health Organization believes that 20% of those who are blind from cataracts got them because of exposure to UV rays. Sunlight and UV rays can therefore cause serious and long term problems for the eyes.
Wrinkles. UV rays cause damage to the connective tissue that is part of the skin. This damage causes the skin to lose its elasticity, causing it to sag. Additionally, dehydrated skin looks older than well hydrated skin, so a day in the sun can cause you to look older quickly. Perhaps not surprisingly, one study has shown that discussing how tanning makes your skin look older stopped some college students from tanning. When a group of college students were told of the increased risk of skin cancer, their tanning habits did not change. When you are talking to your teen about the risks of tanning, it might make sense to emphasize how UV rays permanently age the skin as it appears to be the most effective message.
Other dangers. It has been shown that when humans and rodents are exposed to UV rays, the exposure suppressed their immune systems. In rodents, this immune problem led to increased susceptibility to skin infections and even systemic infections. Although more study is needed, science suggests that increased exposure to UV rays can lead to problems with the immune system. Too much time being exposed to either the sun's own rays or a hot tanning bed can lead to heat-related problems like heat exhaustion or heat stroke. The risks of tanning are still being explored and in the future we may learn of more consequences of UV exposure.
What About Skin Cancer?
Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. The most deadly form of skin cancer is melanoma (or malignant melanoma)and every year, more people are getting, and dying from, melanomas. Experts believe that exposure to both UVA and UVB rays is causing this near epidemic of skin cancers.
Research shows that tanning and UV exposure early in life puts your teen at particularly high risk when they become adults. Teens' cells are growing at a rapid rate and appear to be vulnerable to the damage that UV rays cause. Research shows that if your child or teen has one or more significant sunburns, it significantly increases his or her risk of developing melanoma in the future. These early sunburns also increases the risk of basal cell carcinoma, another kind of skin cancer, in the future.
Sources:
Guidelines for School Programs to Prevent Skin Cancer. Centers for Disease Control. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5104a1.htm. May 3, 2009.
Hillhouse J. A randomized controlled trial of an appearance-focused intervention to prevent skin cancer. Cancer 2008, 13(11):3257 – 3266
Sunbeds, tanning and UV exposure. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs287/en/. May 3, 2009.
Teen Tanning Hazards. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2005/205_tan.html. May 3, 2009.
Ultraviolet radiation: solar radiation and human health. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs227/en/index.html. May 3, 2009.
