Indoor Tanning can Cause Burns, Fainting, Eye Injuries, Study Reports

Indoor tanning does not only increase one's risk of developing skin cancer, it can also lead to burns, fainting and eye injuries, a new study reported. According to the researchers, about 3,200 emergency room cases can be linked to these health complications every year.

"In terms of passing out, people reported falling down after stepping out of a tanning bed," Gery Guy Jr., the lead investigator with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated according to Philly. "There were several cases where individuals reported falling asleep in the tanning bed, resulting in overexposure and burns. That's interesting because there are regulations that indoor tanning beds have timers, so this may mean that timers weren't working or people are overriding the timers so they can stay in longer."

Guy added that many tanners who ended up staying in the beds too long suffered from first- and second-degree burns. Four out of five causes were linked to skin burns. The eye injuries, which made up less than six percent of the cases, include redness and burning caused by frequent exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Fainting was tied to about 10 percent of the cases.

The research team analyzed patient data related to indoor tanning between 2003 and 2012 taken from 66 hospitals' emergency rooms within the U.S. There were a total of 405 injuries. The team estimated that about 3,234 Americans get treated, on average, for some kind of indoor-tanning-related injury every year. The researchers reported that more than 80 percent of the patients were females and almost 80 percent were white.

They added that the number of cases tied to indoor tanning declined within the time period from 6,500 in 2003 to about 2,000 in 2012.

In response to the study's findings, John Overstreet, the executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association, stated, "I think the story is how few injuries actually occur and how much progress the industry has made in making a low number of injuries even lower. Clearly during the 10 years covered by the study, the industry made significant progress in making sure customers do not suffer injury. That is a safety record all industries should strive to achieve."

The study, "Indoor Tanning-Related Injuries Treated in a National Sample of US Hospital Emergency Departments," was published in the JAMA Internal Medicine.