Each year, about 28 million people use tanning beds. Young women, ages 16 to 29, are the main customers of the $2.6 billion industry. An investigation discovered that tanning salons are pacifying the risks of tanning and promoting benefits that do not exist. In an investigation that involved 300 tanning salons, 90 percent of the salons told investigators, who posed as fair-skinned teenage girls, that indoor tanning has no health risk and 78 percent asserted indoor tanning would improve health.
Dr. Rhonda Rand, a dermatologist said, “It is so false. We know that skin cancer, especially melanoma, is on the rise, especially in women in their 20s, because they went to tanning salons in their teenage years.” According to studies, the risk of melanoma goes up 75 percent when tanning bed usage begins before the age of 30. In October 2011, California became the first state to ban the use of indoor tanning devices for people under 18. Restrictions on teen tanning have been placed in 31 more states. Some restrictions require parents to accompany their children.
