Twenty per cent of Germans visit solariums despite health risks, according to the German government.
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SYDNEY: Despite the health risks inherent in artificial tans, visiting the solarium is all the rage in Germany, according to German researchers.
Approximately 16 million Germans - one-fifth of the population - use solariums to top up their tans all year round, according to figures from the working group on dermatological damage prevention (ADP), a German government agency that provides public information on the risks of skin cancer. The prevalence of solarium visits has German doctors concerned, because overuse of sunbeds can cause serious health problems.
Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light is the key to the tan obtained from a visit to the solarium or a day at the beach. However, overexposure to the high-energy light rays is also a key risk factor in skin cancer. A 1994 Swedish study found that women who visited solariums 10 times or more a year were seven times more likely to develop melanoma than women who did not.
Studies conducted at southern Germany's Stuttgart Media University in 2006 found that out of almost 900 solarium visitors, more than 90 per cent said the main reason they visited solariums is because a tan makes them feel more "alive". Eighty-four per cent said that "lightly tanned skin" made them look more healthy. Others interviewed said they just wanted to avoid their winter whiteness.
"I normally go once a week for 30 minutes. It just makes me look better in the winter," said Andrea (last name not given), a 38-year-old interpreter from Berlin. "I am aware of the health risks though, and I stopped going when I was pregnant."
Alarmingly though, the majority of people studied were not aware of the risks associated with excessive tanning. Only one third feared getting skin cancer from using solariums - a figure that has the German government worried.
According to figures from the environment ministry, about 144,000 people contract skin cancer every year in Germany, including 20,000 who have the most serious form, melanoma. And the numbers are rising. "Health problems due to ultra-violet light are going to rise sharply if more and more people go to tanning studios," said Eckhard Breitbart, a physician with the ADP.
Solarium use is high in other countries as well; nearly 30 million people in the United States - about 10 per cent of the population - tan indoors annually, according to the U.S. Skin Cancer Foundation. In particular, use of tanning beds by adolescent girls is increasing, reported the Foundation.
A few companies have signed up to a code of conduct drafted by the Federal Office for Radiation Protection that mainly guarantees standards of hygiene, but Germany currently has no safety regulations regarding the use of the country's 12,000 tanning salons. Concern from doctors, though, has the government considering measures similar those those in effect in Australia, where regulations prohibit those under 16 from using solariums.
"We are currently discussing this but nothing has been decided," said environment ministry spokesman Tobias Duenow.
