Is Anti-Tan the Same as Anti-Sun?

Whenever I read an article about anti-tanning legislation on a local news website, the “comments” section is filled with those opposed to such a ban.  They cite that government should not dictate parental rights (yet we have age restrictions on cigarettes and alcohol as well as many others).  Some mention that tanning beds provide valuable Vitamin D to a population that’s seriously deficient (it doesn’t).  Whatever the argument, I typically write it off as the person being misinformed.  I sometimes offer up a response, but I’ve also learned that once someone has an opinion, it’s pretty difficult to change it. 

However, there’s one misconception I see over and over that just floors me.  “Anti-tanners want to ban sunshine!”  This couldn’t be farther from the truth.  Sure, one can get an unhealthy dose of UV radiation from the sunshine, but one needs to understand the difference between exposure in a tanning bed versus exposure under the sun.

As you probably know, there are two types of UV rays emitted by the sun.  UVA rays go deeper into the skin and typically don’t burn.  They cause the inner skin to darken or tan.  They also cause the skin to age more quickly (UVA –UV Aging) and cause DNA damage.  UVB affects the surface if the skin more and causes sun burns (UVB – UV Burning).

Your body is an amazing thing.  When there is danger, it has a way of warning you.  If you touch something that’s hot, your skin feel s pain and you instantly pull away your hand.  But what if you couldn’t feel that pain?

Imagine going to a dentist and you have your mouth numbed with Novocain.  Before you leave, the dentist warns you not to drink anything hot or to bite your lip.  He issues this warning because he knows that while you can’t feel the pain, you can damage your lips or mouth. 

Your body has a natural mechanism to protect itself from too much sun exposure.  When UVB rays from natural sunshine start to burn the skin, the body announces that it’s time to seek shade.  Without those UVB rays, the body has no way of detecting when it’s time to get out of the sun.  That’s where the danger lays in tanning beds versus sunshine. 

There are no UVB rays in most tanning beds, so your body won’t get burnt.  However, the UVA rays still penetrate your skin and cause serious damage.  In fact, the amount of UVA radiation from the bed may actually be many times more intense than from natural sunlight!  When you leave the tanning salon, you won’t feel the pain or the burn, but the damage will be there.  It’s like drinking scalding hot coffee with a numb mouth…you won’t feel the pain, but the damage has taken place.

This is not to say that the sun is entirely safe, but this doesn’t mean that we fear the sun and expect it to be shunned.  What we do is respect the sun. 

Those who have been adversely affected by the sun (whether it be from melanoma or aged skin) have every right to fear the sun.  But for many, they’ve learned to respect it rather than fear it.  They have learned that it’s important to wear sunscreen when enjoying the sun’s warmth.  They know it’s best to seek shade between 10AM and 4PM when the sun’s rays are at their strongest.  They know that wearing a hat provides additional protection.  Believe it or not, they enjoy the sun very much.  They embrace the sun.  They also know the limits in which to enjoy and learned to respect it.

So are those opposed to tanning in beds also opposed to the sun?  No.  In fact, we encourage you to enjoy the sun, but to be safe within in.  Just realize that a tanning bed offers much different dangers from the sun and they should indeed be avoided.  Tanning beds are NOT the sun…not at all.

Sources:  American Cancer Society, Skin Cancer Foundation, Melanoma Research Foundation, and plain ol' common sense!

A Loved One's Influence

Source:  MSN.com

Preface:  The following thoughts are intended to be politically neutral with no biased towards or against gay marriage.  (I know I have readers that have strong opinions at either end of this discussion).  While I have my personal opinions on such matters, I always try to maintain a neutral tone in my posts so as not to detract from the main message of melanoma awareness.  With that being said, I share an analogy in which some may claim I’m comparing being gay to having an awful disease like melanoma.  This is in no way the case.  My thoughts merely compare one’s point of view when influenced by a loved one’s situation or life event…whether it be homosexuality, a cancer diagnosis, or possessing any other trait.

Senator Rob Portman of Ohio recently announced that he has changed his position against gay marriage.  His history shows a very aggressive campaign to block any chance of any homosexual couple engaging in any formal, law-abiding union.  However, today Senator Portman revealed that he now supports gay marriage.  Why?  His son has recently stated that he is gay.

The senator stated that he did a lot of research and consulted with his pastor before he had a change of heart.  Obviously his love for his son inspired him to partake in such research, but this leads me to wonder if his previous stance was based solely on his personal opinion and not on any research at all.

I’ve seen this before.  I’ve experienced this before.

Prior to 2004, I knew very little about skin cancer or melanoma and really had no clue about any such relationship to tanning.  Sure, I knew that getting a lot of sunburns was probably a bad thing for one’s skin, but I also remember the tanning bed operator telling me that tanning beds emit “only the safe UV rays that don’t burn.”  (Yes, I visited a tanning salon for about a one month period back in the late 1980’s.  My distain for potentially laying in other people’s germ-laden sweat caused me to cease the practice more so than the potential for skin damage).

In 2004, my brother announced that he had melanoma removed from his back.  He told us that the doctors determined that the cancer had not spread to his lymph nodes.  Everyone sighed in relief and assumed that his melanoma was totally eradicated.  Silly ol’ skin cancer…such an inconvenience and so easy to remove.

In 2010, Jeff’s melanoma returned and, as most of you know, he passed away in November of that year.  Jeff never visited a tanning booth only because they didn’t exist in his youth.  But he did aggressively “sunbathe” in the summer using only baby oil and iodine as his tanning oil.  So did I.  His illness and subsequent death prompted me to do some extensive research in melanoma. 

There was evidence to suggest that tanning beds were safe and that they were a great tool in providing Vitamin D and treating seasonal affective disorder.  However, there was overwhelmingly more evidence to suggest that tanning of any kind has a direct link to skin cancer and melanoma, and that tanning beds are even more dangerous.  After such research, my stance was clear and I vowed to make others aware.

It took a loved one’s encounter with melanoma to inspire me to do the necessary research on melanoma and allow me to come to my own personal conclusion (some would agree…some would disagree).  It took Senator Portman’s son coming out to inspire him to do his own research and come to his own personal conclusion (some would agree…some would disagree).

Several state legislative bodies across the country are considering proposed tanning ban bills.  North Carolina is one such state.  So far, House Bill HB8 has passed through two subcommittees, but not without some opposition.  One representative (Marilyn Avila) has been on both committees and has voted against the bill each time.  She has stated that she has done some research and has concluded that there is no strong scientific evidence of a link between melanoma and tanning.  She also has stated that banning tanning beds would cause unsupervised teens to scamper into the sunlight to seek a tan that’s not properly regulated or monitored.  She claims that she’s done her research, so I have to respect her opinion, even if it differs from mine.

I would never wish melanoma upon anyone.  But I have to wonder…would her stance change if a close family member revealed that they had melanoma after using tanning beds?

Did You Hear?

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Did you hear?  Governor Brown of California has signed a bill into law which bans tanning beds for minors!  This is incredible news!  But let me ask this again…did you hear? 

When I scan the internet for links for my Facebook page, I typically do Google and/or Bing searches for melanoma “news” and “videos.”  When word of Yervoy and other drugs came out, there were videos a plenty.  With this news from California, I saw plenty of links to news articles, but no videos.  There seemed to be no videos that aired on the broadcast news.  I eventually dug deeper and found one at CBS News.  Unfortunately, the text accompanying the video read “the health police are at it again.”  Hardly a glowing report on a potential life-saving decision.  It seems the broadcasting of this news was quite limited.

Next I checked a couple of major cancer organizations.  These aren’t just the melanoma people, but groups that encompass ALL cancers.  Since I recently “liked” this group, I looked at Stand Up 2 Cancer’s Facebook page.  Nothing.  Not one word.  I then looked at the American Cancer Society FB page.  As of right now, there is only one comment about the California law…and it’s posted by yours truly.

This is disturbing to me.   I feel like melanoma is the young teenager that still has to sit at the kids’ table during holidays.  Sure, this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the color pink has completely taken over this month (which ironically used to be about orange and black which just happen to be the two melanoma colors).  Perhaps the focus on Breast Cancer has these all-cancer organizations so focused on pink football cleats and pink Pringles containers that they simply didn’t notice this news that’s very important to the melanoma bunch.

Then again, it could be that these all-cancer groups don’t want to rock the boat.  After all, not everyone is celebrating this new law.  There is a HUGE tanning industry that just took a big hit and, frankly, many patrons of these solariums just don’t get it.  They believe the government is taking away a legal right to tan.  (Note, they only banned the use of tanning beds from minors…teens can still legally get skin cancer the old fashioned way under the sun).  I have to admit that I understand their argument.  I don’t agree with the tanners' point of view (because I’m informed of the truth) but I understand.  If it was determined that consumption of M&M’s caused mouth cancer and thus the sale of M&M’s was banned, I’d be fighting that decision to the Supreme Court.  But then again, maybe if there was overwhelming hard evidence from a number of medical organizations around the world, I might eventually be convinced to eat Skittles.

Thankfully, organizations like the Skin Cancer Foundation, MRF, and AIM at Melanoma are getting the word out and spear heading these new laws and campaigns.  Most of all, they’re working to educate people on the dangers of UV radiation and trying to get the point across that skin cancer is preventable by being sun and UV smart!

Did you hear that?  Preventable!  I hope others hear that as well.