Radiation risk to winter tan

The study found some sunbeds emit radiation several times higher than natural sunlight. Photo / Getty Images

Sun worshippers preserving their tan over winter under sunlamps are exposing themselves to far higher levels of some radiation than during summer sunbathing at the beach, a study has shown.

The Cancer Society has seized on the findings as ammunition in its bid for regulation of solariums.

Atmospheric physicist Dr Richard McKenzie says tests on several tanning machines found that overall they were emitting ultraviolet radiation at about the same level as the machines' users would be exposed to in the middle of a bright New Zealand summer's day.

But for some wavelengths in the UV-A band, the levels were higher, Dr McKenzie, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said yesterday.

"It's a precautionary message. You should be aware when you use a sunbed that you are exposing your skin to some wavelengths of radiation that are several times higher - maybe five times higher - than natural sunlight."

He said the health risks of these wavelengths were not known.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer last year reclassified ultraviolet radiation as a definite cause of cancer.

New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of malignant melanoma. Each year around 250 people die from the skin cancer.

The Cancer Society has long been pushing, without success, for the Government to introduce regulations to control solariums.

The society's health promotion manager, Jan Pearson, said that because solarium standards were voluntary, "you get huge variations in the amount of UV you get from different solariums. There's no way of knowing that as a consumer.

"Most operators wouldn't know how much UV or what wavelength their machines were giving. Most solariums are in places like gyms or beauty therapists. The operators aren't really trained or knowledgeable around what the machines are capable of doing."

The Niwa study, involving 500 people and being done with Auckland, Canterbury and Otago universities, is also considering vitamin D, which is produced in the skin from UV exposure.

Dr McKenzie said that because of the wavelengths from sunbeds, using them would make less vitamin D than natural sunlight.

Tiffany Brown, the managing director of an Auckland tanning centre and the spokeswoman of the Indoor Tanning Association, welcomed Dr McKenzie's "making the public aware that sunbeds help the body to produce vitamin D.

"... our sun-tanning units contain new era sunlamps which emit about the same number of UV-A photons as sunlight, and have been shown to reduce the potential to damage the skin by 83 per cent."


Sunbed user 'never better'

Linda Harrison has been browning herself at the local sunbed salon at least once a week for the past 12 years and insists she's never been healthier.

Health checks have revealed no cancerous spots, flus have been oddly absent and her outlook on life has never been better - and the 46-year-old says it's all down to her artificial tanning.

"I like to do it because it's my own space, I feel really good. I don't get the winter blues as much as I do if I don't go. Yeah, I like the tan - the vanity side of it - but that would probably be the fourth or fifth main reason I go. I go because I feel good and I don't want to burn."

The Papatoetoe woman says she is aware of the precautions needed when using sunbeds and believes things like regular use of moisturiser have made all the difference - including preventing that "leathery" appearance that some regular sunbathers get.

"I'm 46, I'm starting to wrinkle, I'm a heavy smoker but I certainly don't have that leather over-sunned look because ... I moisturise and I don't burn ... I do 11 minutes once or twice a week - religiously. It gives me a really good buffer. I don't get sick. I swear by them."

- Elizabeth Binning