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• Nearly three-fifths (58 percent) of respondents 18 to 29 years old thought people looked more attractive with a tan.
• Nearly three-fourths (71.3 percent) of the respondents 18 to 29 years old agreed with statement “Sun exposure is good for your health.”
• In the past year, approximately 40 percent of respondents under age 30 tried to get a tan (used a tanning bed, spent time in the sun, used a self-tanner or got a spray tan).
• One-fourth (25.2 percent) of respondents 18 to 29 years of age were unsure if sun exposure can cause wrinkles.
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You've got to admire these altruistic dermatologists—successfully changing the perception and “banning the tan” will take business away from them. But it might save some lives as well.
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On a related note, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given manufacturers an extra six months (in addition to the year they were already given) to comply with the new marketing guidelines for sunscreens. Larger companies now have until December (just in time for swimsuit season…in South America) to make the requested changes to product labels; smaller companies have until December 2013.
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According to the FDA, under the new labeling, “sunscreens labeled as both Broad Spectrum and SPF 15 (or higher), if used regularly, as directed, and in combination with other sun protection measures will help prevent sunburn, reduce the risk of skin cancer, and reduce the risk of early skin aging.”
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Apparently the FDA (the same organization that has spent millions of tax dollars on meaningless investigations into old jocks' performance enhancements) feared a worldwide shortage of sunscreen if manufacturers couldn't slap on the new labels by June 2012. Maybe it's just taken those manufacturers a year to decipher that FDA paragraph above.
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