The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking for better ways to protect public health by potentially regulating tanning devices, Peper Long, a FDA spokesperson said.
A panel meeting will be held in March to look at information about the linkage between tanning and skin cancer, she said.
Long said the FDA is looking to make warning labels on tanning beds more prominent.
According to a report to Congress in 2007, the FDA produced information that could lead to tanning salons changing labeling to help the public better understand the negative effects of tanning.
Long said no formal legislation has been developed at this point.
“We’ve been working to improve the safety of these devices for a while,” Long said.
The FDA has been examining tanning devices’ performance standards and working with international tanning organizations to develop standards, she said.
Long proposed that people shouldn’t tan at all or at the minimum, reduce the amount of times they go.
“You could achieve the same tan as perceived visually with a much-reduced cumulative dose,” Long said. “So instead of going three times a week, you may be able to go once a week.”
Early childhood education sophomore Tara Santillan said she started going to tanning beds her junior year of high school partly because her friends were going.
“I like to tan because I like to have color,” Santillan said. “I think you just kind of feel better about yourself.”
Santillan said the possibility of getting skin cancer does concern her, so she tries to limit her tanning to about once a month.
This past summer, Santillan said she was “freaked out” on a regular basis while working at Celebrity Tanning in Glendale.
“We have 40-year-old women who look like they’re 60 that used to come into the tanning salon,” Santillan said. “Those type of people, I don’t want to become.”
Santillan said she isn’t sure that better labeling on tanning devices would cause less people to tan, but it couldn’t hurt.
Physical education sophomore Audrey Sundberg stopped going to tanning beds for three months because she was no longer satisfied with the services.
“I’m over it,” Sundberg said. “It’s ridiculously expensive and I don’t want to age my skin.”
Sundberg said she’s aware of the danger of getting skin cancer from tanning, but it never crossed her mind.
“Maybe it’s because it was never really presented to me,” she said. “It never really scared me.”
Most of the tanning salons Sundberg has been to have had information about the dangers of tanning available, but she thinks more information is necessary.
“I think they should take more responsibility and present it better,” Sundberg said. “I don’t think they do a good enough job.”
Celebrity Tanning has nine locations across the Valley, including one near the Tempe campus that takes Sun Dollars.
Officials at several of the locations refused to speak about whether or not they had some responsibility in better informing their customers, saying it didn’t fit their platform.
Reach the reporter at dbjoraas@asu.edu
