Would you use a product that doctors warn against; has been shown to cause cancer; makes you look 'better' temporarily but in the long term, it actually ages you; and puts you at risk for infection?

Then why use a tanning bed?

There are many aspects of medicine that are unknowns. Why is there still no cure for the common cold? Why are some people afflicted with rare diseases? Yet, there are some well-accepted and well-proven facts in medicine. Among them: cigarette smoking being known to be harmful in many ways to one's health, operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated is dangerous to both the driver and other motorists, lack of specific nutrients will lead to growth abnormalities in children, to name some notable examples.

It is no medical mystery that ultraviolet light exposure is known to cause damage to the skin. In spite of the knowledge that the use of tanning beds with its direct impact on the body's surface, can lead to premature aging of the skin and malignancies of the skin, many people choose to ignore this well-established fact and seek what is perceived as a bronze glow by using indoor tanning beds. The facts are indisputable: repeated and or chronic ultra violet light exposure damages the skin both on its surface as well as deep.

The World Health Organization has declared exposure to ultraviolet rays a carcinogen. Yet, with this being a clear danger, many still choose to ignore it and are preyed upon by those who can potentially gain financially from keeping the public misinformed and tantalized by the seduction of a "healthful" or "safe" tan (which on the contrary, does not exist).

People are being fooled into thinking that a tanning bed tan is in some way safer than a tan achieved from the sun. This, thanks in part to, a very active and vocal indoor tanning industry and their lobbyists. Many are swayed by statements about tanning beds "making us healthy" because they provide us with vitamin D. This argument is flawed. Exposure to ultraviolet light does indeed help the metabolism of vitamin D. However, one can receive vitamin D nutritionally with foods or supplements (minus the risk). Why would someone who seeks good health benefits from vitamin D do so while exposing themselves to a carcinogen?

Tanning beds first gained great popularity in the late seventies and eighties with wide acceptance and use today. What scares many doctors is that the ultimate damage done to the skin exposed to these UV rays takes time to manifest. In other words, people who began frequenting tanning beds decades ago will begin to realize the harmful effects today. And it just so happens that the incidence of skin cancer appears to be on the rise. Coincidence?

Demographic and epidemiologic studies conclude that young adults and teens, especially fair-skinned females, are the ones most likely seek out the use of tanning beds. These people may think today they look great after tanning. What about a few years from now? The attractiveness one perceives for a week (about as long as a tan lasts) could ultimately lead to a life plagued by wrinkled, discolored, aged and cancer-laden skin-- lasting a lifetime.

I see this multiple times a day in my private practice in Connecticut, which is why I helped to push through legislation in the state of Connecticut seeking to curtail the use of indoor tanning facilities among teens (in 2006). The laws are on the books but enforcement is questionable.

Please help spread the alarm. With the approach of prom, graduation and wedding season, don't allow your loved ones to harm their skin and their future with the frivolous attainment of a tan.

Any form of a tan is evidence that the skin is reacting to the assault of too much of the sun's rays. With repeated insult to the epidermis by way of tanning, burning etc, the skin will revolt and show its "true colors" in the end.

Be safe and remember the only safe tan, is a tan from a can!

Blogging off,
Dr. Zalka