English 111
Brent Mark
Ivy Tech Community College
10-2-2008
Have you ever been tanning? I have been tanning multiple times and I love it. Tanning is defined as “A structure lined with sunlamps in which one stands or reclines in order to acquire a suntan”. Tanning’s purpose as it is defined is to get a tan. Tanning beds are used by people to tan all year around. Men and women are no longer forced to make time to tan outside or to schedule a time around the weather because of tanning beds. Another reason tanning beds are convenient is it only takes a short amount of time to show results when regularly you would have to lay outside for hours before you see results. In this paper, I am going to evaluate tanning where it came from, who invented it, where, and why. Last but not least were going to be looking at the positive and the negative aspects of tanning too.
The history of tanning beds begins with Friedrich Wolff. Friedrich Wolff was a German scientist who invented the tanning bed in 1978. Friedrich invented this on accident. He did this when he was doing a study on the positive side effects of ultraviolet light on athletes. Then he noticed a side effect about the skin when under ultraviolet light, he saw that the skin became a nice tan color. Later on he eventually brought the tanning industry to America. Years later to present day tanning has become a huge business, and a common hobby throughout not only the United States but the world.
On the contrary, there are plenty of health risks when operating a tanning bed. Some people consider that tanning beds are detrimental to the health of all users. One of the major health risks that someone can get from tanning is skin cancer. The AAD state that “the number of skin cancers have been raising over the years due to increasing exposure to UV radiation from the sun, tanning beds, and sun lamps”. At hand are two kinds of skin cancer: