In anticipation of warmer weather and spring break, tanning enthusiasts will flock to local salons to darken their skin tone.How does this ritual begin in a young woman’s life? According to the “First Time Tanning Study” conducted by Katie Baker, a doctoral student in the College of Public Health, the routine usage of tanning beds may depend on the mother’s tendency to soak up doses of ultraviolet radiation.

The results from an indoor tanning survey conducted in 2008 and 2009, say that 39 percent of the 227 female participants went to their first tanning bed visit with their mothers.

Senior psychology major Jessica Keck said her mother and sister accompanied her to the tanning salon when she was 15. This example follows another part of Baker’s findings, which were published in the journal of the American Medical Association along with co-authors Dr. Joel Hillhouse and Dr. Xuefeng Liu.

The study says that women who tanned with their mothers began utilizing indoor tanning around age 14 and a half, which is two years earlier than those who went alone or with a friend.

“And if you think about that, it makes sense,” Baker said in a press release. “You’re 14, and you don’t have any money; you don’t have your own car. You’re able to start earlier because mom is supplying the money and the transportation.”

Cost is also a factor when it comes to indoor tanning. While living at Campus Ridge, an apartment complex near the ETSU campus, Keck used the tanning beds several times per week, which are provided to residents free of charge. Now that she’s moved, the price is too steep.

“I would probably go before spring break if I could afford it,” she said.

Locally, it costs between $5 and $8 per visit to lay in regular, fluorescent lamp tanning beds. Many times, the price does not include the 10 percent tax that was enacted in July 2010 to help defray costs of the health care reform bill.

“Right now I think the 10 percent tax is a great alternative,” she said. “It keeps young people away from harmful behavior.”

Price may not deter everyone’s tendency to tan. Freshman Laura Jordan, who lies in the tanning bed about once a month during winter, hasn’t noticed enough of a price increase to stop her from going. However, she does say that the dangers of indoor tanning cross her mind during each 10-minute visit.

“I think adolescents view themselves as invincible and think ‘it won’t happen to me,'” Baker said in a phone interview.

“The media uses stories as scare tactics that women may identify with but, at this point, if we look to the literature, it motivates women to have a certain appearance that outweighs the risk.”

Women who begin using tanning beds before age 35 have a 75 percent increased risk of developing the deadliest form of skin cancer – melanoma, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Sophomore education major Danielle Maples confirmed those statistics when she developed skin cancer last summer at the age of 19, five years after her first tanning bed visit. Following a surgery and 12 stitches, Maples no longer soaks in the UVA and UVB rays five days a week, three months a year. In fact, she’s “very anti-tanning bed.”

“I just tell my friends ‘don’t do it,’ but it doesn’t scare them unless it happens to them,” Maples said.

If real life examples among friends and in the pages of Seventeen aren’t changing the minds of young tanning bed users, what can be done to decrease the cases of preventable skin cancer?

“Indoor radiation is a class 1 carcinogen and tobacco is considered that too,” said Baker, a graduate assistant at the ETSU Skin Cancer Prevention Lab. “This means it’s been proven to cause cancer in humans.

“We banned the sale of tobacco to minors, maybe we should ban the sale of indoor tanning to minors as well.”

Although that may be an option in the future, the state of Tennessee currently has several laws effecting minors and indoor tanning.

Anyone 14 or under cannot tan unless accompanied by a parent and people under 18 must have parental permission for a tanning bed visit. Even with laws and the risk of developing skin cancer, the number of tanners remains steady, Baker said.

“We think physicians should stress to parents the roles they play in influencing their daughters’ decision on whether to begin indoor tanning,” Baker said.

Not only is indoor tanning a learned behavior, but perhaps it a social one, too. Sophomore art major Jori Sposito says the only reason she tans is to spend time with a friend who she doesn’t get to see often.

“It’s our bonding time,” she said. “We go on Tuesdays because it’s $2. I know we can’t talk while we tan, but we ride there together and we go out and eat afterward. “

Sposito, like others, is aware of the side effects, but continues her tanning trips. Alternatively, Emily Banks stopped the weekly habit about a year ago.

“I don’t want to be wrinkly when I get older and it’s dangerous,” she said.

Apart from the cancer-causing side effects of indoor tanning, the FDA still classifies tanning beds as medical devices to treat certain skin disorders such as psoriasis, Baker said.

Since the lamps are used for treatment and many people own tanning beds in their homes, a ban on indoor tanning is nearly impossible.

In addition to raising awareness to parents on the dangers of tanning beds, Baker suggests decreasing the pressure young women have to withhold a certain appearance.

“We should reframe the message,” she said. “Maybe we should stop saying tanning is bad, but lighter skin is good. Taylor Swift has fairly pale skin. Maybe we could stress the beauty of an appearance like hers.

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