Syracuse, notorious for its gray skies, touts many bronzed students – even in the darkest of winter. But tanning poses severe health risks, calling into question the decisions young women make to become artificially beautiful.

With Spring Break just around the corner, college women are out trying to get their base tanning layer before they venture to Cancun, Miami Beach and the like. But tanning is a known cancer-causing agent. So, contrary to popular belief, a base layer doesn’t help prevent damage.

‘Every time a UV (ultraviolet) ray insults the skin from the sun or a booth, the skin doesn’t forget it,’ said Joyce Farah, a Syracuse dermatologist and professor at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University.

I’m not terribly fair-skinned, but I’ve had more sunburns and tans – many from the infamous Australian sun – than I should. I tried getting that artificial base layer before my senior Spring Break trip in high school, but I wasn’t 18, and my mom refused to sign the waiver. She acknowledged the health risks I didn’t want to pay attention to.

A tan, Farah said, appears as a preventive measure against further skin damage. But when a body is tan, that means there has already been damage – permanent damage. ‘(Tanning) one time is too many,’ she said.

Many tanners don’t realize that occasional visits to the tanning salon are harmful to their health.

Freshman Carly Hechler mostly visits tanning booths at home, but because of the Syracuse winters, she occasionally tans here as well. Her mother warns of the health risks of tanning, but that doesn’t stop Hechler from craving those UV rays.

‘I’m not concerned about the health risks,’ she said. ‘I know I should be … I hate being pale.’

Generally, the UV ray damage on young skin isn’t visible immediately, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. This can be problematic, because people who do tan and who might be aware of the health risks don’t see harm right away. Their beauty is a ticking time bomb.

Jackie Tilmes, a senior psychology and nutrition major, recognizes the health risks of tanning. She doesn’t tan frequently, but she’s aware that it might not matter. She compares her infrequent trips to the tanning bed to being outside during the summer.

‘I guess I can get some of the problems (going infrequently),’ Tilmes said. ‘But I think it’s the same risk that you have going outside in the summer.’

Tilmes said she journeys to the tanning salons as a quick and warm pick-me-up, and to prepare for further sun exposure.

‘There’s not a lot of sun here,’ she said. ‘Tanning helps my mood in a weird way.’

It’s ironic that people go to tanning booths or beds to look aesthetically pleasing. In addition to being potentially fatal – causing melanoma – UV damage causes the skin to age quicker, Farah said. There’s that immediate gratification of browning the skin, but over time, the skin will become wrinkled, crinkly and prematurely aged.

‘Do what you can to protect yourself from sun exposure,’ Farah said. ‘It’s foolish to get UV rays for beauty.’

Beauty should be natural and healthy. There’s a problem when beauty is influenced by society, causing people to follow what Hollywood deems beautiful regardless of the health problems they pose.

Marjorie DeVault, an SU professor of sociology, said the mentality that women must be physically beautiful is in our history.

‘Throughout history, women (have been) evaluated on the basis of how they look,’ she said.

DeVault doesn’t think women should put their bodies in harm’s way just to become more beautiful. Good health should trump beauty.

‘Feminists have been trying to shift ideas of what’s beautiful to coincide with what’s healthy,’ she said.

On the bright side (no pun intended), if you feel the need to brown your skin, spray tan and tanning lotions are perfectly safe ways to bronze the skin, Farah said.

‘But remember it’s not really a tan,’ she said.

Heather Mayer is the health columnist. Her columns appear every other Thursday. She plans on wearing sunscreen when she goes to Tucson for Spring Break. She can be reached at [email protected]

Published on February 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm