With the Back Bay Ball close at hand and Spring Break less than one month away, many college students are off to the tanning salons to obtain that elusive bronze color they haven’t had since summer.
Perfect Tan, located at 1030 Commonwealth Ave., services an average of 300 clients a day, according to day manager Holly Shepard, who said the salon is in the middle of its busiest season, which runs from late December to April.
“We have a huge amount of students coming in because we’re located right across the street from BU,” she said.
A study in the Feb. 6 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute said the use of artificial tanning devices such as booths and beds increases the risk of two forms of non-melanoma skin cancers: basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas.
The study, conducted by researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, found people who reported using artificial tanning devices such as tanning booths and beds are more likely to develop these illnesses than those who do not. Specifically, people using such devices are 2.5 times more at risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more at risk of developing basal cell carcinoma than those who refrain from using tanning devices.
Andrea Hickle coordinator of the Minnesota and Massachusetts Indoor Tanning Study, said a lot of attention has been given to the study, which did not have indoor tanning as its focus.
Hickle named dosage, frequency and duration of tanning visits and the types of equipment used in tanning as crucial factors in considering the correlation between skin cancers and artificial tanning.
She said the goal of her study, which began in December 1999 and is expected to conclude this November, is to provide tanning businesses in both states with training on complying with state regulations and to promote standards that go beyond state regulations to protect the health of indoor tanning clients.
Shepard stressed tanning at Perfect Tan is a “cosmetic service,” but her salon advocates skin safety by concentrating on not burning their clients.
“We actually upset a lot of people by not letting them come out of here fried, regardless of what they want to do,” Shepard said.
She said the company closely regulates clients’ dosages and often recommends clients repeat their previous session’s dosage — despite feeling unsatisfied — for optimum, long-term tanning results.
Meredith Falb, a junior in the College of Communication, said she went tanning for a month-and-a-half in her home state of Maine to look good in a formal dress, an open-back ivory gown.
“I was too happy with the results. I wanted to keep going,” she said, despite warnings from her mother, a nurse, who cautioned that the UV rays would damage Falb’s fair skin.
Falb said although she is aware of the dangers, she would tan again if she had a reason. She also said she believed tanning provides base protection against harmful solar exposure.
According to Hickle, indoor tanning does provide a skin protection factor of about 3-4.
“That certainly does not compare with what is offered by sunscreens and protective clothing,” she said.
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