Indoor tanning can lead to burns, fainting, eye injuries| Reuters

Reuters Health – Indoor tanning can send people to the emergency room for burns, eye injuries and losing consciousness, according to U.S. health officials.

“It’s important for people to understand both the long-term and the short-term risks of indoor tanning,” said Gery P. Guy Jr. of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

“For example, burns increase the risk of skin cancer later in life, while eye injuries from intense UV exposure may lead to cataracts and eye melanoma,” he told Reuters Health by email. “People trying to get tan to look good need to understand that they might get a burn rather than a tan, and that tanned skin is also damaged skin.”

Using data from a sample of U.S. emergency rooms, the researchers identified 405 cases of nonfatal injury caused by indoor tanning between 2003 and 2012.

More than 80 percent of patients in the study data were female and nearly 80 percent were white. Patients commonly came from a public setting, like a tanning salon – rather than a booth in their own homes.

Most people suffered skin burns, while 10 percent had fainted and almost 6 percent had eye injuries including burns, inflamed corneas or foreign objects embedded in the eye.

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