Subject:  Re UV tanning lights (fwd)
Date:     Wed, 22 Apr 1998 080945 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:19:24 -0400
From: Bertha Dumpe 
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Cc: smilham@halcyon.com
Subject: Re: UV tanning lights

(436.3 7-23-1997))  id 852565ED.00810CA7 ; Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:29:33 -0400
X-Lotus-FromDomain: WORLDBANK

Roy: In response to the querry of Dr. Sam Milham re the tanning beds or
cylinders:

Health and Safety Act of 1968 regulates ultraviolet (UV) sunlamps. The Food
Drug Administration (FDA), branch of the cabinet agency the Health and
Human Services, regulates the use of sunlamps under their Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR) number 21. The lamps are used for tanning and therapeutic
purposes. The short wavelengths of the UV lamps range from 200 nanometers
(nm) to 400 nm. An electric discharge cutting through mercury vapor
produces ultraviolet for tanning. In addition, the tanning apparatus
incorporates a heated filament that generates infrared radiation to heat
the skin, which allows the UV to tan the skin.

Natural UV up to 320 nm is considered near UV. For that reason FDA  .
limits sunlamp UV exposure to 400 nm which is a longer wavelength.
Nevertheless UV lamps are hazardous, which is why FDA regulates them.
Around 1990, UV lamps were a threat to human health to tanning salon
patrons who complained to the FDA about burns during treatment. Recently, a
neighbor went who suffers from seasonal depression went to a salon for
treatment. Naked, the Albanian was instructed to crawl into a cylinder;
infrared and UV was directed around his entire body. He was told to remain
in the apparatus for 30 minutes due to his the swarthy pigment of his face.
About 25 minutes later, he could no longer tolerate the heat. He turned the
machine off (new lamps according to FDA must have this option old ones dis
not). His skin was blistered, raw. He could say nothing because, before
treatment, the salon owner had insisted he sign a waiver absolving the
salam of any biological damage. Subsequently, the person was unable to sit,
the skin peeled and itched. It took over a month to cure, but itching
persists. He worries about the long-term efects of baking in the UV tanning
cylinder. His wife described it similar to a medical diagnostic magnetic
resonance sylinder.

Dr. Milham, as you can judge the UV tanning device is engineered like the
sodium vapor lamps which also emit UV (reason turtles gravitated to it like
the sun). So, yes, tanning beds emit both ionizing (UV) and nonionizing
(infrared) radiation. Melanin (dark spots on skin and eyes) and the pineal
gland absorb UV. The whole skin, which includes the eyes, absorbs infrared.
So what can one expect from unscrupulous tanning salon operators?







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Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html