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

Maybe an alternate approach could help you convince him. Going outside on even a cloudy day without sunscreen for a surprisingly short amount of time (like less than 30 mins) can expose your skin to enough damaging UV rays to increase your chances of skin cancer ever so slightly. You can be getting damage even without any visible darkening or burning of skin.

Now imagine purposefully tanning and exposing large areas of your skin to UV rays (whether via sun or tanning bed) for a significant amount of time. That just increases the chances even more.

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