Should Tanning Salon Employees Be Regulated on How Much They Tan - Research Paper Example

4TH JUNE Should Tanning Salon Employees Be Regulated On How Much They Tan? To have a healthy glow is one of the most consistent fashions of recent years, with everyone hoping to get a tan before they go away or before the summer comes. However, sunless tanning has become increasingly popular, particularly sunbeds which have a huge number of dangers associated with them, including skin cancer. Those that work in the tanning salon have a duty to protect their customers and will usually give advice on how long to spend on the sunbed, and if they need to have any other protection. It has been debated whether these tanning salon employees should be regulated on how much they tan in order to set an example for their customers and not to promote unhealthy levels of tanning. Tanning salon employees are there to show how to safely tan, and therefore should be careful on what impression they give to the customers. In this case, it seems sensible that they are regulated on how much they tan personally in order to set this good example for their customers and to help protect the health of those that use sunless tanning to achieve their glow. The Use and Dangers of Tanning Beds One of the biggest reasons for this discussion is that tanning beds are extremely dangerous. Just some of the risks include skin cancer (including malignant melanoma), cataracts, immune system suppression and early signs of skin aging (Mawn & Fleischer, 1993). There are, of course, benefits to this, in that it can provide vitamin D to those who do not live in sunny climates, and some suggest that they boost mood (Woo & Eide, 2010). A light tan also provides around SPF 4 to the individual, meaning that in small doses it could be protective against the sun’s UV rays (Ting et al, 2007). It also helps the wearer to feel more comfortable in their own skin and to fit in with fashion. Young people are particularly at risk from the dangers of tanning beds and tanning booths, because they are biologically more vulnerable to the harmful effects of UV radiation (Ting et al, 2007). Young people are also the group most likely to use tanning beds because of the coercive effects of images of celebrities with golden tans. The dangers of this increased use amongst young people is shown in the fact that melanoma skin cancer is increasing at a huge rate in the 15-29 age group and much faster in females than in males (Mawn & Fleischer, 1993). 24% of non-Hispanic white young people between the ages of 13 and 19 have reported using a sunbed (Geller et al, 2002). In many states, this is being combat by introducing regulations about the age at which one can first use a sunbed, although these can be difficult to enforce. Tanning Salon Employees Evidently, these tanning salons need employees, although some do run automatically. The main duty of the tanning salon staff should be to warn people, particularly young people, about the dangers of this type of tanning. They should also be giving advice about how long someone should spend on a tanning bed depending on their skin type and color (Geller et al, 2002), as a way of reducing the risks of tanning beds and tanning booths. However, many tanning salon employees do not have training in this area and may just be following vague guidelines, another problem in the sunless tanning industry (Bruyneel-Raap et al, 1988). Many of the people that work in tanning salons will have an interest in tanning beds and may be users themselves. It is evidently bad for the image of the salon itself to have pale people working for the tanning salon as they are selling a product that buys into the image of the ‘healthy glow’. In some cases, it has been found that these employees are actually required by their employer to have a tan (Poh-Fitzpatrick & Ellis, 1989), something which is worrying in itself, given the dangers of this type of tanning. It is quite common for people to believe that tanned people are healthier and more attractive than those who do not tan (Mawn & Fleischer, 1993), and therefore tanning salon employees should be fairly likely to fit themselves into this image in order to better sell the product. However, as they are giving advice to the people using the product, they should be good representatives of how best to use tanning beds themselves. It is difficult for anyone in any situation to take advice from someone who clearly is not following the advice themselves (Forster et al, 2006), which applies to people in this situation. A tanning salon employee should tread carefully between being a representative of the tanned image and being an advisor on how to use the tanning booths in a safe way. One of the major problems in the tanning industry is the lack of training for staff. One study showed that 71% of surveyed operators have had no training in tanning and did not recognize any of the things that made tanning beds more dangerous for certain individuals, such as photosensitizing drugs (Geller et al, 2002). If they are not aware of the dangers in a professional capacity, then they are likely to be less aware of the dangers when it comes to their own personal health, and therefore may be more likely to put themselves at risk and present an unhealthy image of tanning to their customer (Geller et al, 2002). Obviously, there is freedom in this country and this freedom dictates what we are allowed to do with our own body (Kravitz, 2010). This means that tanning salon employees have a right to use the tanning beds at their own discretion in any way that they please. However, the biggest argument against this position is that an individual is allowed to treat their own body badly but is not allowed to cause harm to other individuals (Greene & Laura, 2003). In this case, whilst these employees are not causing direct harm to the customers at the tanning salons, they may be subconsciously affecting the choice of the customer and may lead to the customer using a tanning bed for longer and more often than they would usually to emulate the ‘healthy glow’ of the staff. There may be a benefit to tanning salon staff being unregulated. If the tanning salon staff use the tanning beds for a long time, they may begin to show premature signs of aging and have episodes of skin cancers (Greene & Laura, 2003). This means that they may not be presenting a positive image of tanning bed use to the customer as they are showing that it is dangerous. Additionally, as one of the main reasons for tanning in this way is that it is perceived to be healthier to be tan than to be pale (O’Riordan et al, 2006); if the individual is going there to get healthy they may be put-off by the wrinkles and skin cancer of the staff. It should also be mentioned that whilst tanning salons can be regulated, the sun cannot. Whilst tanning beds are more dangerous because they provide more concentrated doses of UV (Forster et al, 2006), the sun still poses a danger. If these tanning salons were not in existence, people would still seek a tan from the sun, and therefore still be putting themselves at danger of skin cancer and premature aging (O’Riordan et al, 2006). Taking this into account, it could be argued that the tanning salon employees do not have any control over how people tan, as they will still seek the ‘healthy’ glow from other areas. However, it still seems best to provide as much protection for the customer and the employees as possible, despite this fact. Enforcing Regulation? The discussion of how to regulate these staff is a little more difficult. As previously noted, everyone needs different lengths of time on the tanning bed and therefore a limit placed on the staff based upon minutes would not work. It would also be extremely difficult to measure people by tan shade because, of course, everyone is different. Instead, it would be possible to either issue guidelines for the staff, much like those given to the customer, or to ban tanning beds altogether for staff in tanning salons. Banning tanning beds completely for these staff may be a little hypocritical, because they are running this service for users of sunless tanning. It would not make sense to have these employees not be able to use the product that they are selling, and they may not be able to give specific advice about using the sunbed to their customers when asked. It seems that the most sensible thing to do would be to implement some time limit or some guideline with respect to time spent on the sunbed which roughly correlates to skin color, as is provided to the customer (Kravitz, 2010). However, actually implementing this scheme may be a little more difficult. It would be impossible to go to every tanning salon in the country to see how long the employees had been using the sunbed, particularly as new salons are opening daily (Ting et al, 2007). Additionally, there is no real scientific way of telling how long someone has spent on a sunbed, so implementing it would mean relying on the word of the employee and their co-workers. Another level of complexity is added to the situation when you consider how many people have to work at one particular salon and how many salons there are all over the country. The best method would be to give guidelines to these salons without making it law or illegal to spend longer. This would help give a level of control to the situation to help the staff give the customers the best impression of sunless tanning and the best safety advice without having to implement expensive schemes to protect them. It would mean that many employees may not necessarily follow the guidelines, but it could work to reduce the amount of time they do spend on there. Another way of ensuring that tanning salon employees spend less time on tanning beds themselves and therefore pass the message onto the customer is to educate them properly. As previously mentioned, a huge number of those that work in these salons have had no education in the ways of the tanning bed or tanning booth (Geller et al, 2002). To make it mandatory to understand the health risks, both for themselves and for the customers, would make it more likely that they would stay away from the tanning themselves and help project a more positive, healthy image of sunless tanning. It should be noted that this may not necessarily work. Many surveys have shown that young people particularly are aware of the dangers associated with tanning but either feel it does not apply to them or that the benefits outweigh the dangers. Those who understand the dangers are not any less likely than those who do not to use a sunbed (Kravitz, 2010). This may have complications for the scheme mentioned above, as educating these staff may not make them less likely to use a sunbed. However, the huge benefit of implementing such a training program is that what they do learn they may be able to pass onto the customer to make tanning beds safer for everyone involved and help reduce the rates of malignant melanoma and other skin cancers in this country. Conclusion There are a huge number of problems associated with tanning beds, mostly due to the fact that they rely on the use of huge doses of UV light that would not be gained from the sun. The biggest users of these tanning beds are young people, who are most at risk from the dangers of exposure to UV radiation. The tanning salon employees have a responsibility to the customer to help protect them as much as possible from the dangers of this type of tanning and a responsibility to give good, clear information about the dangers. They also have a responsibility to project a good image themselves, so they should represent the brand (by having a tan) but by using the tanning beds or booths responsibly themselves, so it is recommended that the amount of time they spend on the sunless tanner is regulated. However, as shown above, implementing this type of protection may be difficult because of a number of factors. Firstly, there are a huge number of tanning salons and an even larger number of employees that work in these places. It is hard to tell how long someone has spent on a sunbed. The best way to tackle this problem seems to be to educate the employees of the tanning salon to ensure that they best understand the dangers and hope that they will self-regulate the amount of time that they spend on a tanning bed and help to pass this safety information on to the customer. References Bruyneel-Raap, F., S. B. Dorsey, and J. D. Guin. ‘The Tanning Salon: An Area Survey of Equipment, Procedures, and Practices’. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 18.5 (1988): 1030–1038. Print. ---. ‘The Tanning Salon: An Area Survey of Equipment, Procedures, and Practices’. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 18.5 (1988): 1030–1038. Print. Forster, J. L. et al. ‘Compliance with Restrictions on Sale of Indoor Tanning Sessions to Youth in Minnesota and Massachusetts’. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 55.6 (2006): 962–967. Print. Geller, A. C. et al. ‘Use of Sunscreen, Sunburning Rates, and Tanning Bed Use Among More Than 10 000 US Children and Adolescents’. Pediatrics 109.6 (2002): 1009–1014. Print. Greene, K., and S. B. Laura. ‘Messages Influencing College Women’s Tanning Bed Use: Statistical Versus Narrative Evidence Format and a Self-assessment to Increase Perceived Susceptibility’. Journal of health communication 8.5 (2003): 443–461. Print. Kravitz, M. ‘Indoor Tanning, Skin Cancer, and Tanorexia: Development of US Indoor Tanning Policy’. Journal of the Dermatology Nurses’ Association 2.3 (2010): 110. Print. Mawn, V. B., and A. B. Fleischer. ‘A Survey of Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behavior Regarding Tanning Bed Use, Sunbathing, and Sunscreen Use’. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 29.6 (1993): 959–962. Print. O’Riordan, D. L. et al. ‘Frequent Tanning Bed Use, Weight Concerns, and Other Health Risk Behaviors in Adolescent Females (United States)’. Cancer Causes and Control 17.5 (2006): 679–686. Print. Poh-Fitzpatrick, M. B., and D. L. Ellis. ‘Porphyrialike Bullous Dermatosis After Chronic Intense Tanning Bed And/or Sunlight Exposure’. Archives of dermatology 125.9 (1989): 1236. Print. Ting, W. et al. ‘Tanning Bed Exposure Increases the Risk of Malignant Melanoma’. International journal of dermatology 46.12 (2007): 1253–1257. Print. Woo, D. K., and M. J. Eide. ‘Tanning Beds, Skin Cancer, and Vitamin D: An Examination of the Scientific Evidence and Public Health Implications’. Dermatologic therapy 23.1 (2010): 61–71. Print. Read More