A Short Rant at the Tanning Salon Deception

You most likely have already heard about the congressional report about tanning salons lying to customers to get their business.  Investigators, posing as 16-year-old girls called 300 tanning salons across the country.  Ninety percent of the salons assured the callers that there was no health risk and over seventy-five percent claimed there were health benefits to indoor tanning!  Over half stated that there was no increased risk of skin cancer.

Amazing…but not surprising.

About 25 years ago, I was a young, single, somewhat geeky and skinny male that was looking for any advantage to “look better.”  I had an after work routine of work-outs and/or socialization (aka…going to the bars).  On Tuesdays the Thursdays, I also included a trip to the tanning salon.  Thursday night was “Ladies’ Night” at the local bar and I wanted to have that glow.  I had signed up for a total of 10 sessions, each one lasting between 15 and 20 minutes.  I was told to set the timer myself (I sometimes set it for 25 minutes) and wipe down the bed with Windex afterwards.  That was my entire maintenance instruction.  I do recall that I was told tanning beds were safer than the sun.  The topic of cancer never came up (I was too unaware to mention it)…only that the UV rays that burn you aren’t used….only the “good” UV rays.

Yep, the good ones that cause cancer.

So again, it’s not surprising that this recent report shows misinformation in the tanning industry.  Twenty-five years ago, I blame naivety on the owner’s part.  Now…it’s plain old deception.  There’s no excuse at all!

On a happier note, there is legislation in several states right now regarding tanning regulation and/or banning.  One has to believe that this congressional report will only help these measures get passed on the state level.  Furthermore, New South Wales I Australia recently passed a tanning ban.  This was in large parts to efforts by Jay Allen…a person with whom many melanoma warriors are aware.  Thank you Jay!

This report is big.  It’s great news.  And it’s making great things happen!

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.  

A (Hopeful) Sign of Things to Come...

I apologize for having not posted many thoughts lately.  As I alluded to in a previous post, we had a “work force adjustment” at my company.  Luckily, I survived the cut, but my workload has near doubled as a result.  I have been simply too physically and mentally exhausted to keep up any fresh thoughts on this blog or my Facebook page.  But things are stabilizing now, so I should be back to my blogging self in no time.

I want to share something quite exciting.  This past Saturday, my family and I went to our family haircut.  As I mentioned before in yet another post (wow, I never realized I shared so much of my personal life here), my wife, kids and I all visit the hair stylist every six weeks or so as a group.   I had a little dilemma in that it was a hair AND tanning salon.  We really like our stylist Shannon, but there was something about the tanning booths in the back room that gave me the willies.  However, this past weekend, we were greeted with the following sign inside the shop:

          “Sorry to announce we will no longer be offering tanning…”

Sure enough, I saw that the “Legacy” and other tanning equipment sitting in the back unplugged.  My immediate reaction was to say, “Yea!”

I asked Shannon why they decided to quit the tanning business.  She went on to explain that there were three reasons.  First, there’s the recent 10% federal tax on tanning.  Secondly, the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Radiation Protection apparently has significantly increased the fees to operate radiation-inducing equipment.  And finally, the recent introduced legislation to require teens to have a doctor’s prescription to use a tanning bed was the last straw.  Oddly enough, although that legislation sits in limbo, it still had a direct effect on closing down one tanning operation.

A part of me was a little disappointed at first in that this was a small local business being adversely affected by government regulations.  It’s tough enough for small businesses to make it nowadays, so I felt some sadness that their livelihood may have been affected.  But when I asked how much business was lost, I was told, “not much…just spotty business around prom time.”  My guilt flittered away immediately and I happy to know that (a) a local business will most likely continue and (b) a few prom-aged girls might be unknowingly spared a horrible disease.

A fourth reason for turning off the beds was cited:  the big-named tanning salons in town.  These are the places that truly need to be regulated more…but we’ll take one victory at a time.

Finally, let me just say that Shannon is not the business owner, so the decisions one way or the other were not hers.  But I found two comments she made during my haircut rather interesting.  First, “I’m kinda glad those things are turned off…I have to wonder how safe it was to work here.”  And secondly, “my husband’s mother (I think) died of melanoma…so I’m not unhappy to see them go.”

Neither am I…neither am I.