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If You Plan to Tan, Plan to Pay

In the weeks approaching prom season, many high school girls flock to tanning salons, hoping to achieve the golden glow that can be found in magazines and advertisements across the world. However, these girls may not realize the harmful effects that tanning beds can cause- until it’s too late.

Many people know that tanning in beds increases the probability of getting skin cancer.  If they knew that a person is 74% more likely to develop melanoma from tanning indoors, they might rethink subscribing to a nearby tanning salon.

Tanning indoors also causes skin to age prematurely, creating fine lines and wrinkles at an age much younger than when aging would naturally occur.

When skin burns, the red color comes from UVA rays popping capillaries directly below the skin. The pain that you feel when you touch a sunburn is the result of broken blood vessels. Any type of sun exposure, in a bed or outdoors, can cause this.

Although tanning beds have many increased risks, some say there are also benefits of tanning. Tanning bed enthusiast Erica Boccuzzi believes that the positive aspects of tanning outweigh the risks.

“I go nearly every day because it helps relieve stress; I always think of my best ideas when I’m tanning,” says Boccuzzi.

Tanning in beds can also be recommended by doctors to soothe certain skin ailments. Senior Steph Kiley, who has dealt with eczema many times before, can prove that doctor prescribed tanning helps her skin a lot.

“It [tanning] moisturizes my dry skin and gives me vitamin C,” says Kiley, “and my doctor prescribes it for a week every month. It really makes a difference and makes my skin smoother.”

While some say that indoor tanning is good in certain situations, others show cancer statistics to dismiss the benefits. Whether skin cancer is bad for the skin or not, millions of people do it everyday, and it’s going to stick around for a while.

Graphic Credit: http://217989-www5.dosomething.org/files/styles/blog_landscape/public/pictures/blog/Indoor%20Tanning%20Graphic_final.png?itok=nRPPS6bF

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Alyssa is the Executive Online Editor and has spent two full semesters at Hawk Headlines. She loves U.S. History and her pet fish, Benjamin.

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