Booby Prize
BY Marilyn Carpenter
Indoor tanning may give you more than a golden glow. It may even protect against breast cancer, according to Fabutan Sun Tan Studios, a Calgary-based chain of 150 tanning parlours across Canada.
“A Fabutan experience also provides your body with vitamin D, helps you eliminate the ‘winter blues,’ clears acne and may prevent certain types of cancer,” the company’s website says. Fabutan drew attention to the relationship between tanning and breast cancer this past fall with a special promotion offering an extra 75 minutes of tanning for $10, with the money going to breast cancer research. “The community and business implications were perfect, our core demographic is women,” says President Doug McNabb.
But while ultraviolet B rays from a tanning booth stimulate vitamin D production, they are also the carcinogenic culprits behind sunburns. So, you might be fighting breast cancer at the expense of skin cancer.
Dr. Ian Landells, a dermatologist at Memorial University in St. John’s, says it doesn’t take much to get your daily dose of vitamin D. “You need maybe five to 10 minutes of sunlight on the equivalent to the backs of your hands, three to four times a week,” he says. And it’s not like sunshine—real or artificial—is the only source of vitamin D; it’s also found in milk, eggs and several types of fish.
The bottom line is most medical experts don’t recommend tanning to ward off cancer. “[Tanning] is a source of vitamin D as much as cigarettes are a source of nicotine,” says Dr. David Hogg, a hematologist at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. “It is clearly a dangerous way to get your vitamins.”
