July 30th, 2009
Sunset for the tanning business
For Sarah Palin this may be worse than all the ethics complaints that forced her from office.
One of her favorite recreations, the tanning bed, is as deadly as arsenic or mustard gas. (Picture from TheWhitedSepulchre, a blog maintained by a Libertarian from Ft. Worth, Texas.)
This is not coming from some liberal special interest group. And it’s not just an opinion. It is the considered conclusion of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization.
Combined analysis of over 20 epidemiological studies shows that the risk of cutaneous melanoma is increased by 75% when the use of tanning devices starts before age 30. There is also sufficient evidence of an increased risk of ocular melanoma associated with the use of tanning devices. Studies in experimental animals support these conclusions and demonstrate that ultraviolet radiation (UVA, UVB, and UVC) is carcinogenic to humans.
These findings reinforce current recommendations by the World Health Organization to avoid sunlamps and tanning parlours and to protect yourself from overexposure to the sun.
Keep doing that and you’re going to have something else in common with John McCain — an oncologist.
They blinded Sarah with science. Literally. According to The Lancet Oncology, a lot of these melanomas can occur in the eye.
Seriously, though, it would be nice if findings like this could be accompanied by discussions of alternatives. In places like Alaska, a tanning bed can be the only UV radiation you see for months at a time, and we all need our Vitamin D.
Maybe she can get a poem out of it.
One more thing. Democrats need to wipe those smiles from their faces. Tanning salons are estimated to be an $11.2 billion industry. Most salons are small businesses. They all just got a big kick in the teeth, and the resulting economic pain is going to be very real.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 07/30/09
