With all of today’s debates surrounding UV Radiation Exposure it amazes me how the true issue is always skirted by the ITA and its member base, the “professionals” of indoor tanning.

First, my background and ability to speak as an authority on the subject; I spent three years of my life as part of the indoor tanning industry. In my time there I traveled extensively training and certifying salon owners and workers for an FDA mandated certification known as International Smart Tan. Here are the facts:

Of the thousands of people I trained over my course of time the majority of them were young females, mostly late teens and early twenties. These young ladies had no desire to spend 8 hours with yours truly and truly absorb the message at hand:

YOU control a persons exposure time.

Here is the formula:

Intensity x Duration = Total Exposure.

Meaning, I take you to a beach in Long Island, NY in the middle of the hottest month of the year, August. Because of this beaches’ particular global location, where it resides in relevance to the equator, its position to the sun in the summer solstice, a few hours on this beach would be equivalent to laying for a 20 minute session in a 32 bulb, 100watts per bulb sunbed.

Now, on the same month, same day, I take you to a beach in Bermuda. Now that you are right on the equator and considering this beaches’ particular global location, where it resides in relevance to the equator, its position to the sun in the summer solstice, a few hours on this beach would be equivalent to laying for an 8 minute session in a 52 bulb, 160watts per bulb sunbed.

How do we know this?

Makers and manufacturers of sunbed lamps use something called a spectrometer to measure the radiation levels of UVB and UVA in order to match that which the sun sends to earth. By measuring this they can effectively manipulate and ultimately create a sunbed lamp that mimicks certain global positions.

What 19 year old girl really even comes close to understanding this science? the ones that do are not the ones working in the tanning salon, they are at places like MIT getting an education for higher aspirations in life.

So this understanding is left to be interpreted for the uneducated consumer by the young people behind the desk administering the UV exposure.

Now I ask you this:

Knowing the above sunbed to beach example, how often and for how long would allow yourself of your child to spend on that Long Island NY or Bermuda beach?

Not too long before you got thoughts of burning and skin cancer.

If this is the case why do indoor tanning and sunbed salons encourage unlimited monthly UV exposure packages to their clientele?

I would say its profit driven.

If you owned a tanning salon would you REALLY encourage your clients to only come 20x a year at $15 a session? That would be $300 in revenue for you per client and if you wanted a $300,000 revenue stream, the goal for most salons and thats conservative, you would need 1,000 steady clients.

With the utter saturation of indoor salons in the USA, approx. 28,000 with an additional 50,000 gyms and nail/hair salons offering a sunbed or two, thats 1,560 indoor tanning salons per state.

The reality is that mot salons have a steady client base of avid tanners of about 250 people. Using my math above that translates to $75,000 in revenue. It costs the average salon with 6 to 8 units about $6,000 per month to operate. They would have no profit. So instead they encourage the tanners to keep buying monthly packages and visit the sunbed more like 100 times per year and at $15 a pop 250 steady tanners you now have your $300,000 in revenue and your making a hell of a profit.

The bottom line is business and not true health concern for the general public. The ITA and Euro associations will continue to accuse the medical world of using “junk science” instead of truly acknowledging the fact that the sunbed operator is in it for the profit. If a few people have to die along the way so be it. That sure sounds like the tobacco mindset to me.

Is anyone surprised by this? there is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588

Of course this will have no effect on people who’s vanity trumps their own health. Most people who use them will continue to use them. Let’s see how good they look when they’re dying of cancer.