Tanning and its Risks :: Skin Cancer Health Beauty Essays

Tanning and its Risks Liza Schenkel, a 2002 graduate of Ball State University, visited her dermatologist for a routine checkup, and asked her doctor to take a look at some spots on her body that looked abnormal. She said: "I had noticed a spot on my chest that didn't look right. This spot changed colors during the summer months, was raised from the skin, and had a peculiar shape." These were all warning signs of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Schenkel’s doctor immediately removed the spot and sent the skin cells to a lab to be tested. The cells proved to be cancerous and Schenkel was diagnosed with melanoma at 22. She is representative of the growing problem of skin cancer among college-age persons. The increase in cancer among young adults is a result of a growing obsession with tanning. Unlike some of her friends, Schenkel does not believe that she was obsessed with lying out in the summer months and visiting the tanning bed. She did not visit the tanning bed until her junior year in high school and that was at the most, once a week, with exceptions for special occasions. At her lake home, she would generally tan on the weekend by boating and swimming. She never thought that these habits would lead to skin cancer at such an early age. "Compared to my friends who went to the tanning bed every other day, I thought I was responsible. I had my moments of irresponsibility but I never thought it would happen to me." Schenkel represents the growing trend of younger people tanning for the sake of vanity despite possible health risks. The Los Angeles Times reported a study in May 2002 that said from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s, melanoma rates rose 60.5 percent among women age 25-29 and 26.7 percent in the same category for men. The age group of those developing cancer is emerging from high school and college, where tanning has become a fashionable trend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that skin cancers are the most common forms of cancer in the United States. Skin cancers are also the most preventable and curable cancer.