Updated January 30, 2012


The decision to get a tan is yours alone to make. But you should know that ultraviolet light damages your skin, causing wrinkles, sagging, age spots, and discoloration. Make sure you have all the facts before you climb into a tanning bed.

• Ultraviolet (UV) light from tanning beds and from the sun can cause skin cancer, including melanoma - a potentially deadly cancer. Because lifetime exposure to UV increases one’s risk of melanoma, the World Health Organization recommends that no one under the age of 18 uses a tanning bed
• Avoid sunlamps and tanning salons. All tanning beds use UV light. No tanning bed or sunlamp can give you a safe tan
• There is no scientific evidence that tanning beds or sunlamps will reduce your risk of cancer or other disease. Nor will a tan protect you from sunburns
• UV light from tanning beds and from the sun damages the skin and causes premature aging of the skin.

Alternatives to Tanning Beds

Your skin looks great the way it is, but if you want a ‘bronzed look’ then sunless (UV free) tanning is the only safe way to do it. You can get a sunless tan at home or in a salon by using a cream, lotion, spray, or gel. Sunless tanning products darken your skin without exposing you to either the sun or a tanning bed. A tan does not protect you from the sun, so always be sun safe.

Summer makeup, such as bronzers and blushes, can also give you a tanned look.

For further information about sun safety, please visit www.Suntips.ca.