Eve, Tan Free Grad Leader at Chatelech Secondary School is helping to raise awareness about the dangers of UV radiation among her friends and classmates. She believes being confident with your natural body image is important and indoor tanning is not worth the risk.

Tanning is popular at my school, as we have several tanning places in my town with deals such as “two for one” Tuesdays. There is no doubt that a lot of people visit these tanning beds during winter. In the summer months however, it is mostly tanning at the beach and lake, as we have such beautiful weather. A lot of people I have observed, seem to be aware of the risks of tanning yet participate in going to tanning beds for the sake of having a desirable skin tone. Fortunately, I do think this trend is changing. As people are becoming more aware of the dangers, it seems to be losing its popularity. The media has greatly helped to fuel this, as nowadays any summer article you read in a beauty magazine has information on melanoma scares, and how to protect your skin from the sun. With tanning beds having received the stamp of ‘carcinogen’, light has been shed on the risks of using them, and hopefully people can eventually see tanning beds for what they are: a clear path to premature aging, and potentially deadly skin cancer.

With anything that causes cancer, there most certainly needs to be restrictions for usage. Teens are not legally able to purchase cigarettes, therefore they should not be able to go to a tanning bed, which has been proven to cause cancer. While the government cannot do anything about people tanning in the sun, there can easily be restrictions for tanning beds, which can be far more dangerous to the skin than the sun alone. I would not advocate making tanning beds completely illegal, as that is unrealistic. Yet people should be aware of the risks that come with using a tanning bed, and having to be a certain age will at least help to protect teens until they are adults and have responsibility for themselves.

Body image is all about confidence. When people engage in an activity that makes them feel confident about their appearance, i.e. tanning, they will continue to do it. It seems like in our culture, having a tan is the equivalent of being healthy and good looking. Golden skin is associated with vacations, summer and fun times. Yet not everybody tans easily, and it can seem that being pale equals being less attractive, which is hard in a society that puts so much pressure on looks. A key message I hope everybody can grasp is that while damaging your skin may look good to you in the short term, the long term is not so pretty. Red, wrinkled skin is nobody’s idea of healthy. Not to mention seriously jeopardizing your health by developing skin cancer. Accepting your skin as it is will save you painful burns, cancer scares, and embarrassing streaky self-tanning episodes. So as a last message I hope everyone reading this will consider this: self acceptance is key, and know that when it comes to your health, nothing should be compromised.

I have decided to participate in the Tan Free Grad campaign because protecting your skin is one of the easiest yet most overlooked ways to prevent cancer, and I found it a great way to raise awareness about this issue. If this campaign can help raise enough awareness for everybody or even a few people in my school to decide to not use a tanning bed, that would mean a lot to me. My friend’s well being is extremely important to me, as is the health of everyone in my school.

Eve, Tan Free Grad Leader
Sechelt BC