About Home Tanning Beds

The Increase in Indoor Tanning Beds

During the 1920's a suntan became a stunning look for the rich and famous. This was largely due to the influence of Coco Chanel, the French designer, who declared that a suntan was a desirable fashion look. The concept of achieving a "healthy glow" without having to obtain it outdoors became very popular. However the early indoor tanning devices emitted extremely dangerous portions of the ultraviolet rays, UVC and UVB, and they also had many safety problems. Medical devices that emitted mainly UVA rays were developed and used widely in the 1970's for the purpose of indoor tanning. The adverse effects of UVB rays, which cause the skin to redden, were more obvious than the effects of UVA rays at that time. However, those new indoor tanning devices claimed to offer a "safe" tan.

It was soon learned that UVA exposure could also cause the identical problems that occurred with UVB exposure, such as sunburns, wrinkles (known as photoaging), and skin cancer. The devices that emitted UVA rays were also not very effective for developing a "suntan." Thus, the claims of the indoor tanning industry that these devices could promote a safe tan, were soon learned to be false. Scientific reasons did not cause the abandonment of such claims, but rather it was the desire for darker and faster tanning than what could be achieved by the UVA rays. This lead to the development of indoor tanning machines that combined UVA and UVB rays to replicate that combination which is contained in the sun. As a result, the machines which are used today were developed.

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