Ireland has got the hots for tanning. If you don’t believe it, just take a trip down to the local video store. If it is a part of the Chartbuster chain, in what seems like a most bizarre combination, you’re likely to find that it’s possible to get a tan before you make your video or DVD choice.

That is just one measure of how widespread the phenomenon of tanning has become in Ireland. It is estimated that there are close to 1,500 outlets that provide the service around the country. Which may explain the huge number of orange looking people – women especially – that I have been noticing on the streets of the capital. But as the boom in the business grows, an increasing number of horror stories are emerging, with people being badly burned under the UV sun lamps.
Roisin Ni Mhordha has sallow skin that takes the sun relatively well. She has lived in the Bahamas and in Africa and has not had any problems with the intensity of the heat in either location. She has used sun beds in London, New York, Germany and, more recently, at home in Dublin.
However, she has vowed never again after what turned out to be deeply frightening experience in one of the counrty's leading tanning outlets.
On her initial visit, Roisin found the strength of the stand-up booth quite weak, so she opted for a different treatment on her second visit.
“I tried a lie-down bed, for the same amount of time – nine minutes,” Roisin explains. “I turned off the face panel after about three minutes and I increased the cooling system on it. When I came out, I felt unusually hot. I said to the girl ‘Wow, that was intense’ and she said ‘Oh yes they’re our new beds’ – and there was nothing more said at the time.”
However, the worst was yet to come.
“That evening I was on fire,” she recalls. "In fact I was actually emitting heat for about three days. It felt like I had been lying in the midday sun with no protection, my skin was so burned. It was actually uncomfortable to wear underwear because I couldn’t allow the clothing to touch my skin. It was shocking.”
While the shop in question is one of the most professional of the outfits providing the service in Ireland, Roisin believes that there was something amiss that she could have been so badly over-heated in such a short space of time.
“I was just stunned by the power of those beds and the fact that the effects lasted for so long,” she says. “I had to buy aloe vera gel to try to cool my skin and I did actually peel. I’ve been using sun beds for eight years and I’ve never had an experience so extreme.”

GREATER RISK OF CANCER

Extreme case or common occurrence? According to research by the Irish Cancer Society, over 20% of sun bed users have experienced sunburn as a result of their “treatment” – and sunburn is just the start of the many long-term health problems associated with using sun beds.
In other parts of the world, notably France, the tanning industry is strongly regulated – yet, so far, the Irish health authorities have failed dismally to introduce even the most basic guidelines, leaving the general public open to immediate danger.
This lack of regulation has become a serious concern amongst medical health and consumer groups here. Ireland has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in Europe, with approximately 5,700 new cases diagnosed every year – and tanning shops may be contributing to the further growth in that number.
“It is now the general consensus of medical and research organisations the world over that there are direct links between exposure to UV radiation from sun beds and skin cancer,” says Anita Murphy, Health Promotion Officer at the Irish Cancer Society.
“There’s still this perception that you can’t get sunburned in Ireland with the weather we have,” she adds. “People think that they have to go on a week’s holiday to receive any skin damage, but it’s been shown now that even occasional exposure increases the risk of skin cancer, especially malignant melanoma.”
Many people falsely believe that exposure to artificial UV rays is safer than, or even provides protection against, the sun.
“A suntan is the skin’s response to damage from the UV rays,” Murphy explains. “So whether it’s acquired from a single afternoon in the sun or from a few minutes in a sun bed, it’s still a sign of damage to the skin. Moreover, it’s been found that sun beds can emit levels of UV radiation up to five times as strong as the summer midday sun. There is no safe way to tan.”
According to the 2004 research by the Irish Cancer Society, of the 185,000 people who use sun beds in Ireland the largest group of users are those aged 25 to 34 (13%); more startlingly, one in three users had their first session between the age of 16 and 18.
Now, however, it seems that the craze is starting younger – although in this instance there is little doubt that it is ignorant parents who are responsible, reflecting the new obsession with looking ‘good’ on what are thought of as special occasions.
“We’ve been asked by tons of people in the last three weeks to put children up on the sun beds before their Confirmation or Communion days,” says Fergal Keys, owner of The Tanning Shop outlet in South William Street, Dublin. “We refuse to do that. We have an age limit of 16 years.”
Not all tanning shops in Ireland are as scrupulous.
No wonder that, in March of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued the recommendation that no person under the age of 18 years should use a sun bed. According to the WHO: “Young people who get burnt from exposure to UV will have a greater risk of developing melanoma later in life and recent studies demonstrate the direct link between the use of sun beds and cancer.”
And it doesn’t take a genius to work it out either.

SELF REGULATION DOESN’T WORK

So why has the Irish government done nothing about such a clear and evident danger to public health? There is no legislation that regulates the sun bed industry, not even guidelines to ensure that age limits are enforced or other, even minimum, standards applied.
The Consumer Association of Ireland (CAI), which has been campaigning for regulation of the industry since 1989, has called again on the Government to respond to the WHO recommendations.
“We need to address this problem now more than ever,” says Dermot Jewell, Chief Executive Officer of the CAI. “If we don’t, we are going to see very harsh and very upsetting problems for what are now our young people, in the not-too-distant future.”
In 2002, the association carried out an extensive survey of tanning salons in Dublin. Their findings pointed to the need for regulation of the industry, with the most worrying trends being (a) a poor level of training and supervision by staff and (b) consumers being allowed ‘unlimited usage’ of facilities. This was confirmed by hotpress on research.
Without any legally enforced standards, the consumer is faced with a Russian Roulette-style scenario, says Jewell.
“We had one side who clearly were quite professional – who were determined that nobody would come into contact with that sun bed unless they were aware of what the dangers were and knew the risks involved because of their skin type. But the other side of the coin was that there were others who suggested that they knew what they were talking about – but who really had no idea and who were very, very misleading in the way they portrayed their service.”
Nowhere in Ireland is there anything resembling the kind of public health warnings that are displayed on cigarette packets, for example – despite the fact that the risks are of a similar kind.
“None of these tanning salons are going to put a list of skin cancer statistics on their wall,” says Jewell, “and ultimately it is the consumer’s choice, but unless we have some form of realistic level of protection that brings it up to an 18 year-old knowledge capacity element at least, then we’re going to get nowhere.”
Jewell says that successive Governments’ assumption that the industry would protect itself by insuring that there would be no bad practices has proven to be naïve in the extreme. Self-regulation, he insists, has not worked.
“There are sun bed shops, there are stand-up tanning machines in video and DVD outlets, there are unsupervised coin-operated machines in health clubs and there are sun beds in most beauty salons in every town and city around the country.
“Self-regulation may work in some situations but this is a classic example of where it doesn’t. We’re dealing with a very, very serious matter, the health of a consumer, and it has to go way beyond your normal commercial priorities and protections.”
Elsewhere in Europe, including Belgium and Sweden, there are Government controls in place, but it is the French government that has legislated most comprehensively on the tanning industry. Their regulations require that all UV radiation emitting appliances must be declared to the health authority, that trained personnel must supervise all commercial establishments, that an 18 year-age limit is enforced and that any claims of health benefits from tanning are forbidden.
“It defies belief that we haven’t progressed towards regulation in any shape or form,” says Jewell.
In fact there are those within the tanning industry who would welcome regulation. Tan Ireland is a self-regulatory body that was established in 2002 and offers training courses for salon staff on both the ‘benefits’ and negatives of sun beds. Last year it had 142 members, which, according to the CAI, represents only 10% of the 1,400+ tanning and beauty salons in Ireland.
“I would fully endorse the introduction of regulation,” says Fergal Keys of The Tanning Shop, which is a member of Tan Ireland and the Sun Bed Association UK. “We would like everybody that has sun beds to be a member of an association that has certain guidelines that everybody should implement in a tanning environment. If everybody implemented them you wouldn’t have other salons, or backstreet cowboys as we call them, that don’t maintain their sun beds. Therefore people won’t be allowed on sun beds for 15 or 20 minutes when they should only be on it for 5 or 6 minutes.
“We provide a service that people want,” continues Keys, who points out that there are two sides to every story. “It is about the power of choice and it is about allowing the customer to decide if they want to use it or not. That’s why we offer both sun beds and the sun-less spray tan options.”

NEED FOR LEGISLATION

Against this backdrop, hotpress visited The Tanning Shop on South William Street to enquire about their services. The shop assistant offered plenty of information on the different options, and explained the “responsible approach” to sun bed tanning, which involved leaving at least a day between each session.
When I expressed concern about the potential health risks and asked if she could provide any information on the dangers of sun beds, the assistant was somewhat amused.
“Well, everybody knows it’s not the best thing for your skin,” she said. “It’s kind of like smoking cigarettes, you know that way? I mean it is better than going on holidays and burning. This would be the last place you’d find information on the dangers of sun beds.”
I put it to the shop owner Fergal Keys that people are not able to make informed choices if that is the kind of information given to them.
“We would be 100% of agreement that over-exposure to UV rays is bad for you and we don’t hide from that at all,” he said. “I fully maintain that our staff will inform people on the negative impacts, saying that over-exposure is too much – but they don’t go into the detail that you may require, to go into all the risks. I am more than happy to explain to people that there is a downside but I believe that that is well covered in the national media.
“We’re saying that, at this moment, there is exposure of it and at this moment a lot of people are aware of it. If there was an effort out there to say ‘You need to put up other leaflets to show these people’ we will endeavour and we’ll look at it.”
Just as the once unregulated tobacco industry, after decades of lobbying and class action lawsuits, was forced to display health warnings on cigarette packs, it is the hope of health and consumer groups that similar measures will be introduced in this other potentially lethal industry.
The industry guidelines in Australia and New Zealand, although not part of law in those countries, calls for warning notices to be displayed by salon operators giving advice on the specific health risks associated with sun beds.
Until such time as the government legislates for regulation of the industry, Dermot Jewell of the Consumer Association of Ireland offers this advice: “People must investigate all the precautions themselves, rather than rely on advice from the salons. Until such there is adequate regulation, it’s better to trust nobody.”
In the month of August, The Irish Cancer Society will join forces with the Environmental Health Officers Association in a concerted campaign to lobby the Government for regulation of the tanning industry.
“I do think that this is definitely the way forward and I think that will happen,” says Anita Murphy from the Cancer Society. “The Irish Government has been aware of this issue for a long time but with the recent recommendations from the World Health Organization, I think that they are going to have to take it on board.”
We’ll be watching.