9
BEAUTY AND THE RESPONSIBLE TANNER
Many people in today’s image-conscious society want to be tanned. The Romans built
large sunning terraces onto their villas so as to take advantage of the sun’s spiritually
and physically therapeutic effects. They somehow inherently knew of the positive infl u-
ences that natural sunlight could lend to the human condition, millennia before the sci-
ence of photobiology was conceived of.
Researchers in this fi eld have concluded that there are indeed a number of good things
that can be had by regulated exposure to fi ltered sunlight, not the least of which being
the production of vitamin D, a major contributing substance in the fi ght against many
different types of skin disorders. All of the body’s basic functions are enhanced by a
strengthened immune system, which occurs directly as a result of moderate dosages of
the right types of ultraviolet light absorbed under controlled conditions.
The negative effects resultant of too much natural sunlight, however, is known to many
of us in the forms of sunburn, premature aging and wrinkling of the skin, and fi nally, skin
cancer. Avoiding these notorious hazards at all costs, as well as knowing how your
individual skin type reacts to ultraviolet light, are the primary keys to successfully and
responsibly achieving the tan you have always wanted.
Start by asking the question, “Just what is a tan?”
UV (ULTRAVIOLET) RAYS
Light is measured and analyzed by reading the variations in frequency of a wavelength
(like radio waves) on an oscilloscope. Ultraviolet light isn’t visible to the unassisted
human eye, and must therefore be measured by special sensing devices, i.e. an
UVAmeter.The three types of UV are UVA, UVB and UVC.
UVA has a higher frequency of wavelength than UVB or UVC, and is the ray, which is
thought to promote the excretion of pigment from the hormone called “Melanin”, which
occurs naturally in the skin.
UVB is believed to be the catalyst, or kick-starter for the Melanin to begin producing
pigment. It is also the ray, which causes sunburn and wrinkling, so the skin can with-
stand only brief dosages at very small percentage levels to UVA.
UVC, present in natural sunlight, is mostly fi ltered out by the ozone layer in the upper
atmosphere, and is extremely harmful to human skin, at any level of exposure.
In tanning beds, only small percentages of UVB to UVA are used to effect tanning -
example: 95% UVA-to-5% UVB - whereby the individual tanner will be placed on an
acceptable exposure schedule according to his or her skin type. There is no UVC emit-
ted by tanning lamps.
