Eli5: How bad is tanning really?

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Over the years I have heard from countless sources that tanning (indoor especially) is incredibly dangerous. I know that it increases your risk of skin cancers and other skin damage, early aging, etc but I am having trouble explaining to my partner the severity of the damage. I am bad with words. Can someone please eli5 the reality of it so I can get him to stop tanning? Thank you!

In: Chemistry

14 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Indoor tanning can be thought of as putting yourself in a weak microwave. Those waves can mutate (not accurate term, but appropriate for ELI5) the DNA in your skin cells. Most skin cells will die when this happens, leading to things like sunburn. But if one of those waves hits your skin just right it will mutate a skin cell in such a way that it will not stop growing. This is skin cancer.

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