That is the thing about us Floridians; we do not excessively expose ourselves to the sun, because we have grown up being taught the dangers of the sun. With the strength of the sun in Florida being extremely hazardous, we take precautions. Sure, we enjoy a day at the beach, but we can always pick out the tourists. They are the ones walking around with a Florida shirt and a beet red face. The sun is strong, and a burn is painful and deadly. According to Janice Young of the American Journal of Health Studies, “People who sunburn easily have higher incidence rates of basal cell carcinomas and one severe sunburn early in life can double a person’s chances of developing malignant melanoma.” The tanning industry would like you to believe that sunburns are only a consequence of natural sun and that a tanning bed will give you a tan which will further protect your body from a burn, but that is simply not true (The Case). “A tan penetrates both the epidermis and dermis and is distributed differently in the skin than a suntan. An indoor tan offers a sun protection factor of 2 or 3”, which is not significant in any way to prevent sunburn (Young 3).

Also contrary to what the indoor tanning businesses claim, you can still get a skin burn with a tanning device. In the study previously discussed, of the 185 artificial tanning participants, two-thirds had received a skin burn during a session. “Sixty-six percent had been burned once or twice, twenty-eight percent had burned three-five times, while six percent received skin burns more than five times” (Young 4). I, myself, have witnessed just about every girl on my volleyball team come back from a tanning salon with a skin burn. To them the burn will eventually turn into a tan, and is of no big deal. One girl, Lauren, was once burnt so badly she struggled just to move in practice. She looked liked a giant lobster. Seeing these girls hurting themselves so much pangs me, because I want them so much to understand the dangers that come from tanning both artificially and naturally. Everyone needs to become aware of the risks that are increased. Skin cancer is not even the only thing that they have to worry about, but “exposure of the eyes to ultraviolet radiation is directly related to the onset of cataracts” as well (Watch). Nobody wins when it comes to ultraviolet rays; disease is the ultimate result.

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