About Indoor Tanning

The practice of indoor tanning became widespread in Europe, particularly in the sun-deprived northern countries, in the 1970s. Europeans started tanning indoors with sunlamps that emitted ultraviolet (UV) light as a therapeutic exercise to harness the positive psychological and physiological effects of exposure to UV light. The first indoor tanning facility in the United States was established in the late 1970s. The industry grew rapidly in the 1980s and 90s; today, there are over 25,000 professional indoor tanning businesses in thousands of towns across America. Each year 30 million people—over 10 percent of the American public—visit an indoor tanning facility. The industry employs more than 160,000 Americans, mostly in small businesses. Its total economic impact exceeds $5 billion annually.

Although indoor tanning is considered a cosmetic exercise in the United States, the industry’s roots are therapeutic and many Americans do in fact use tanning facilities for that purpose. People enjoy sunlight and tanning—outdoors, under the sun, or indoors in a professional tanning facility—for many reasons. Tanning facilities in the United States are equipped to deliver cosmetic tans using protocol designed to minimize the risk of sunburn. People simply enjoy the way controlled exposure to UV light makes them look and feel. What’s more, moderate tanning, for individuals who can develop a tan, is the best way to maximize the potential benefits of sun exposure while minimizing the potential risks associated with either too much or too little sunlight.

The benefits of indoor tanning include the following:

• Minimizes the risk of sunburn while maximizing the enjoyment and benefit of having a tan.
• Teaches tanners how their particular skin type reacts to sunlight and how to avoid sunburn—outdoors as well as in a salon.
• Government-regulated controls ensure safety, consistency, and optimal exposure (unlike the outdoors).
• In addition to psychological benefits, exposure to UV light helps the body produce the activated form of vitamin D, which wards off a host of debilitating and sometimes deadly diseases, including osteoporosis, hypertension, diabetes, depression, multiple sclerosis, and cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, uterus, kidney and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

For more information about the indoor tanning industry, tanning in general, and the effects of UV light, please see our FAQs page.