By Doan Nguyen

After a long dreary winter, sheltered and pasty skin is making a public appearance this spring break, meaning many people are using tanning beds to tan their skin.

As the weather gets warmer less clothing will protect people's skin from the sun's ultraviolet rays. Many are getting base tans thinking it would protect them from skin damage and burning. Some are embarrassed showing pasty white legs, a farmer's tan line and others think a tan gives off a slimming and healthy look.

"I went tanning (in a tanning bed) once last year because I wanted to have a tan for spring break, going just once didn't do a whole lot," said Erin Mehr, a junior majoring in early childhood special education.

For whatever reason people have, Marla Homer a medical assistant of the local Rocky Mountain Dermatology Clinic, said she believes, "A lot of people have the misconception that a tan is healthy and beautiful, but tanning is a result of skin injury and occurs when UV rays penetrate the skin and protects it by producing more pigment or melanin."

Tanning beds are just as dangerous as the sun, said Homer. Short ultraviolet-B (UVB) rays from the sun make skin burn and appear red like the longer ultraviolet-A (UVA) waves from tanning beds. The UVA waves penetrate deeper in the skin and an accumulation damages done to the skin caused by UV rays will show 20 years after, resulting in wrinkles, leathery skin, premature aging, skin cancer and etc.

According to MayoClinic.com the risks of skin cancer depend on the amount of damage the skin has accumulated through someone's lifetime exposure to UV rays, intensity of the radiation, and predominant type of UV light (UVA or UVB) being exposed to the skin.

Linda Roberts, a registered nurse at the Student Health and Wellness Center, said a recent article in Journal Watch Women's Health demonstrated solid evidence that tanning (using sunlight and tanning beds) is associated to skin cancer. In the Women's Lifestyle and Health Cohort Study, published and conducted by the Journal National Cancer Institute discovered what had been suspected all along: melanoma risk increased significantly with number of sunburns and with use of artificial-light tanning devices. The risk especially increased with women who had early skin damage as adolescents. The 10-year-study involved about 106,379 fair-skinned women and was published last October.

However, this does not mean that women are more susceptible to skin cancer because "skin is skin," said Homer, although women may be actively seeking to be tan more often then men because of the social misconceptions.

Even before this study came out, Roberts said she thinks people have always known about risks such as the long-term effects of exposing themselves to UV rays but people still disregard their knowledge of what to do to become healthier.

"The sun is a necessity to be healthy (vitamin D) but too much (sun) damages the skin," Homer said the sun's rays peak between 10 am to 4 pm and is most dangerous during that time of day.

"People shouldn't be afraid of the sun but they must protect themselves by wearing sunscreen and a T-shirt." Homer said 80 percent of sun damages to skin occur before the age 18.

Sun block and sunscreens work by absorbing, reflecting or scattering UV rays on the skin. The sun protection factor (SPF) number gives the amount of protection times the minutes a person would normally take to burn after exposure to the sun without sunscreen. Thus, if a fair-skinned person took 10 minutes to burn in the sun, a sunscreen with SPF 15 would protect him or her from sunburns for 1 hour and 50 minutes. A greater SPF number gives a greater protection from sunburn.

Homer suggests sunless tanning products for those who really want a tan. Sunless tanning products contain dihydroxyacetone that interacts with skin proteins producing a non-washable orange color. Sunless tanners with do not have enough SPF to protect skin from UV rays and should be used with a sunscreen.

According to the American Cancer Society in the year 2003 melanoma skin cancer accounted for about 54,200 cases of skin cancer and most (about 7,600) of the 9,800 deaths due to skin cancer each year.

Homer said basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma are cancers associated with sun exposure.

Basal cell carcinoma starts as a red patch or shiny pink, red or white, bump. And can look like a crusty open sore, healing only temporarily. Early detection and treatment can easily cure basal cell carcinoma; such as it would squamous cell carcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma cancer appears scaly or raised like the growth of wart.

Malignant melanoma is the most fatal form of skin cancer. Its mole like appearance has irregular edges and is usually is multicolored with shades of red, blue or white.

MayoClinic.com suggests the ABCD method to examine people's own skin for warning signs of malignant melanoma. Detecting a dysplastic nevi or potentially cancerous mole can be found by looking for an asymmetrical shape, an undefined border of the growth, a variety of colors of the moles or lesions and having a growth greater than 6 millimeters in diameter.

Roberts said until cultural values change from tans as being beautiful and youthful looking, the only thing she as a health care provider can do is to inform people so they can make decisions to help guide people's behavior.

"It's up to individuals to take information and make it apply to them," said Roberts. "It's what a cautious and wise person would do."

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