Sun-dissed
photo by Alex Martin
AS STUDENTS DRAG their feet to class after the whirlwind of midterms, the weather begins to warm, spring starts to push through the dirty snow that still remains on the ground, and thoughts naturally turn to summer patios, beaches, and cottage parties.
Reading Week has come and gone, and many students are still sun-kissed after vacationing somewhere a little sunnier than Ottawa. But behind the bronzing lurk many risks and even more controversy. The dangers of skin cancer are widely known by now, but the purported benefits of tanning are a little less so; whether these make the risks worth it remains to be seen.
MTV’s Jersey Shore, a reality show about self-professed guidos and guidettes living it up in a Seaside Heights, N.J. beach house for the summer, illustrates popular culture’s obsession with tanning as an indication of beauty, but soaking up the sun has not always been in style. Only in the last few decades has it evolved as an industry and a part of popular culture and fashion, and the result is no small amount of controversy.
A brief history of tanning
Historically, lighter and fairer skin was the more coveted complexion, according to the 2008 Michigan Law Review study “Are artificial tans the new cigarettes?” by Andrea Y. Loh.
An individual’s pale skin was an indication of wealth, since he or she was not obligated to do hard manual labour outside in order to make a living. Pale skin was, therefore, equated with a privileged lifestyle and was a desirable physical trait.
“Today, the coveted look is quite the opposite—darkly tanned individuals are perceived to be the healthiest, wealthiest, and most attractive,” Loh’s study concluded.
Dina Salha, a communications professor at the University of Ottawa, spoke with the Fulcrum about the media’s role in tanning’s growing popularity. Salha explained how tanning became fashionable after the industrial revolution of the 1800s, and how cultural icons, such as fashion designer Coco Chanel, initially popularized tanning and helped to transform a simple outdoor activity into an industry. People who had the finances could afford to take vacations in sunny destinations, so those individuals who were tanned embodied a certain type of desirable lifestyle.
“People who had leisure time went in the sun and vacationed, and people who were labouring in the factories looked pale … They couldn’t afford to have free time and sit in the sun,” explained Salha.
She pointed out that exotic women, women of colour, and darker-skinned women are all commonly represented in the media as sexually instinctive beings whose appeal lies in their “need to be tamed” and “closeness to Mother Nature.”
“The representation of female sexuality as being instinctive and free and [the woman] taking charge of her emotions was represented at one point as something that needs to be tamed,” said Salha. “However, today we are arguing that this is really part of [the] freedom of an individual, so points of view have changed.”
Salha said that tanning has become a symbolic representation of a woman’s sexuality and of an attractive lifestyle. But the risks of striving for that image of desirability are evident, even in something as apparently harmless as acquiring a base tan before heading on a Reading Week vacation down south.
The myth of the base tan
Students often use tanning beds before the summertime and before heading south in order to achieve a base tan, a light bronzing believed to protect the skin from burning. Bruce McKay, a professor in the faculty of medicine at the U of O who specializes in studying the cellular response to DNA damage, said that the concept of the base tan is misunderstood and “not really 100 per cent accurate.”
He explained that acquiring a tan before the summer or going on a trip down south only gives a protection level of an SPF 4 sunscreen, which is not sufficient protection, according to the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). The CCS recommends a sunscreen with SPF 15 or higher.
“A tan will protect you against sunlight because of a pigment called melanoma that will protect the cells of your skin,” McKay said. “But in order to get a [base] tan, you need to cause damage [to your skin cells].”
Although the myth of the base tan has been debunked, more uncertainties still surround sunbathing. Vitamin D, for one, is the very definition of a hot topic.
The vitamin D debate
The vitamin D argument sometimes used to promote tanning has exploded recently due to new research that suggests that higher levels of vitamin D have a positive effect on health, including a reduced risk of breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes.
A CBC article published Jan. 5, “Vitamin D: Boning up on the sunshine vitamin,” cites information from a March 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine: “Taking 2,000 IU [International Units] of vitamin D daily along with [spending] 10 to 15 minutes in the sun and [adhering to] a healthy diet could reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer by two-thirds.” The recommendations were based on a conclusion reached by researchers in San Diego, California.
These results are significant considering how many Canadians experience vitamin D deficiencies, according to the pro-tan brochure “The Canadian Tanning Experience.” The brochure, found at uTan in the U of O Sports Complex, explains that “97 per cent of Canadians are vitamin D deficient in the winter [due to] Canada’s relatively sun-deprived northerly climate.”
But previous studies, including the one cited by CBC, haven’t been thorough enough to produce conclusive results, a March 4 Globe and Mail article explains. “Two studies hope to test the benefits of vitamin D once and for all,” published on March 4, reported that trials getting underway in Nebraska and Boston will finally include large enough sample sizes (over 20,000 participants) to offer more accurate conclusions. The tests will put vitamin D through the same paces as drugs, in hopes of proving or disproving the sunshine vitamin’s effects on cancer prevention.
For now, Health Canada recommends not exceeding 2,000 IU of vitamin D per day, but McKay was more cautious. Different people have different requirements for the vitamin, he said.
“[You] probably have to consider what your [individual] cut-off is for a vitamin D deficiency,” McKay said. “I wouldn’t recommend tanning as your source of vitamin D.”
Safer tanning for students
Despite McKay’s advice, students may still choose to worship the rays of the UV lamp, which may or may not be a safer alternative to the sun—depending on whom you ask.
Nik Pasic, assistant manager at uTan, said that his salon provides a safe and controlled environment in which students can tan. Pasic explained that uTan is a professional tanning salon with trained staff who ensure that clients are always kept safe.
“The biggest thing about uTan and any professional salon is that you have the control aspect,” he said. “You’ve got a professional behind the counter who is going to be controlling the [tanning bed].”
All of uTan’s employees are Smart Tan-certified, according to Pasic. Smart Tan is an “educational trade association for professional indoor tanning facilities,” the company’s website states.
Pasic said that uTan screens all potential clients and asks each person to complete a form as well as a questionnaire that determines their skin type—which is essential to determine if a client can use a tanning bed or if an alternative methods of tanning would be safer.
“We get people in here all the time that say, ‘Well, you know, I went to this [tanning salon] and they let me [tan] as much as I want,’ and that’s what gives the industry such a bad name,” Pasic said, “There are places out there that are willing to take your money and burn you, and that’s not who we are [at uTan].”
Pasic said that uTan is extremely strict with their policies on who is permitted to tan. He also noted that the salon’s strict policies on tanning are not well received by some customers.
“We need to know what [the client’s] skin type is ... what the max was on the machine they were tanning on [previously], and if you have a family history of skin cancer,” explained Pasic. “[If a client has a family history] of skin cancer, we say, ‘Don’t tan. It’s not safe.’
“It’s all about moderation,” he added.
Moderation doesn’t always come easily to university students, however, and one study’s paradoxical findings support this statement. A 2009 Health Education Journal study, entitled “Tanning behaviour among young frequent tanners is related to attitudes and not lack of knowledge about the dangers,” found that many students who knew more about the dangers of tanning were, ironically, more likely to tan.
“[There was] a high level of skin cancer prevention knowledge [among students studied]; however, knowledge was not related to a reduction in the importance of tanning,” researchers wrote. “In many cases, higher levels of knowledge corresponded to a greater emphasis on the importance of tanning.”
Additionally, almost 70 per cent of males and 83 per cent of females studied responded that tanning was “somewhat important.”
To fake or to bake?
Although more research is needed, some findings are indisputably conclusive already. According to the CCS, the link between skin mutations and exposure to the sun’s UV rays is becoming clearer.
“There is growing evidence that exposure to ultraviolet radiation through the use of tanning beds and sunlamps may increase skin cancer risk, including malignant melanoma, especially if exposure begins in adolescents or young adulthood,” the CCS wrote in its 2009 report.
But the reality is that tanning is an inextricable part of contemporary culture, and it will be hard to erase from the freckled, sun-kissed face of pop culture. Until then, Generation Y will continue to reach for the tanning oil instead of the sunscreen.
By the numbers
Although the issue of whether tanning is harmful or helpful to one’s health can be debated endlessly, the numbers speak for themselves:
940: estimated number of deaths for melanoma skin cancer in 2009 (Canadian Cancer Society)
5,000:estimated new cases of melanoma skin cancer in Canadians 2009 (CCS)
2,300:estimated new cases of melanoma skin cancer in Canadian women 2009 (CCS)
83: percentage of females studied who stated that having a tan was somewhat important (Dennis, Lowe, & Snetselaar 2009)
68: percentage of males studied who stated that having a tan was somewhat important (Dennis, Lowe, & Snetselaar 2009)
