Word: sun
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Indoor tanning salons, with their clamshell-like Plexiglas sun-lamp beds, have become a testament to the American conviction that a bronzed body radiates health and affluence. In a decade, the industry has burgeoned into 18,000 salons nationwide. Thousands of other businesses, like health clubs, have installed tanning booths. Now the pain: doctors are warning that exposure to the ultraviolet light emitted by sun lamps may result in afflictions, ranging from skin cancer to cataracts, that show up as much as 20 years later. Declares Dr. Stephen Katz, dermatology chief at the National Cancer Institute: "These things are hazardous...
...Mitchell Sams of the University of Alabama in Birmingham recalls one patient with a second-degree "flash burn all over" his body. His mistake: sunbathing outdoors for an hour after visiting a tanning salon the same day; he did not realize that sun lamps can dramatically boost the effect of sunlight. "His entire epidermis peeled off," says Sams. "We didn't think he was going to live...
...emergency visits nationwide last year for injuries related to tanning booths. The year before, Teenagers Jennifer Tyree and Aida Sabato suffered excruciating eye pain after visiting a Manhattan tanning parlor. Reason: because they did not wear protective goggles, their corneas were seared by overexposure to the UV sun lamps. Warns their ophthalmologist Barry Chaiken: "Only time will tell if the exposure is going to mean that they'll face a higher risk of cataracts and other long-term consequences...
Despite such dangers, Ohio is the only state that regulates the tanning industry, although several other states, including California, are considering legislation. U.S. Food and Drug Administration safety standards, which include warnings to wear goggles and limit exposure, are patchily enforced. Most sun- lamp worshipers assume they are protected because the type of radiation produced in most tanning machines is largely UVA (alpha) light instead of UVB (beta) light, which quickly reddens fair skin. Although alpha rays do not appear to burn, says Dr. Michael Franzblau, president of the Congress of California Dermatological Societies, "they're even more dangerous because...
...lower resistance to disease, says Dermatologist John Epstein of the University of California at San Francisco. Epstein and other researchers believe that UVA exposure may promote skin cancer. "The presumption, based on animal studies, is that if you go into an indoor tanning salon, then go out into the sun, you increase the risk of skin cancer," says Dr. Nicholas Lowe of the University of California, Los Angeles...