www.GilbertSunNews.com
Tanning beds pose serious dangers for teens
Youth
but eyes as well, said Dr. Arlynn Roper, When Meghan Waugh was a teenager, an optometrist at Southwestern Eye she started using tanning beds weekly. Center in Tempe. Then a Michigan resident, Waugh “The way tanning beds work is like the wanted to add color to her naturally fair sun, so the UV rays that tan the skin can skin so that it would contrast her white also burn it and affect the eyes,” he said. cheerleading outfit. “UV light accelerates the formation Waugh continued to use of cataracts, which causes tanning beds when she cloudiness in the eyes, and moved to Arizona. Two years it can also cause melanoma ago, during a routine visit to to develop in the eye.” her dermatologist, Waugh got While tanning bed the news that a seemingly businesses typically innocuous small pink growth provide their customers on the back of her right knee with goggles, Roper said was melanoma. some teens and adults Although it was just don’t want to wear them. the size of a pencil eraser, “They say they don’t removing the cancer has left want to look ‘raccoony’ Waugh with a 3-inch scar and Dr. Arlynn Roper, so they say they will just a devout promise to never an optometrist at close their eyes, but this is Southwestern Eye Center, use a tanning bed again. not enough to prevent UV says tanning beds can “If someone paid me damage,” Roper said. lead to eye damage such hundreds of dollars to go Teens who use tanning as dryness, cataracts and into a tanning bed there is beds may also notice that no way I would do it,” Waugh cancer. Submitted photo their eyes are drier than said. “Getting melanoma was usual; if this happens Roper the scariest thing I have ever said they should use overgone through.” the-county artificial tears. “If they come out of the The risks of tanning beds tanning bed and notice With spring just around the that their eyes are red, they corner, local teens may be need to watch this closely, considering going to a local and get medical attention tanning bed to get a golden quickly if it does not go glow. Brittany Conklin, away,” he said. senior consultant and media Roper suggested that relations manager from the teens use self-tanners American Cancer Society, or spray-on tans instead hopes they think twice. of tanning beds. If teens As Conklin noted, younger Meghan Waugh used insist on using a tanning tanning beds regularly as a people are at a higher teenager and was diagnosed bed, he said they need risk than the rest of the to understand the risks with melanoma two years population of suffering from ago. Submitted photo of doing so, ask if the the harmful effects of indoor provided goggles provide tanning devices later in life. In addition, UV protection, and then use them every she says melanoma, the most deadly form single time. of cancer, is the fourth most common Waugh, who is cancer free and doing cancer among young men and women well, also hopes that teenagers think ages 15 to 29. twice before using a tanning bed. For “In fact, using a tanning device before teens who are considering it, she offered the age of 35 increases the risk of this advice: melanoma by 59 percent,” she said. “Self-tanners or spray tans are Because a young person’s skin is still definitely the way to go,” she said. developing, it makes them even more “It’s just not worth it. What you do at susceptible to the harmful effects of UV this age can definitely affect you years rays, Conklin said. from now, and just because you don’t The dangers of tanning devices burn in a tanning bed, it does not mean are so serious that the World Health you won’t get cancer.” Organization has put these in the same category as tobacco and asbestos, Resources: labeling them as “carcinogenic to http://bit.ly/UnEKWa humans.” http://bit.ly/17IcFPU http://1.usa.gov/1bbBePF Eyes are also at risk Tanning beds not only harm the skin,
April 2015
27
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