Answers about Eye Care and Indoor Tanning

For additional information use the following link ~ "EYE PRO"

 

1. Why do you ask to see my eyewear every time I come in to tan?

 N.C. State regulations require eyewear to be worn at all times while indoor tanning.  First and for most, I don't want you to cause permanent damage to your eyes!  Secondly, state inspectors have the right to ask every tanner upon exiting a tanning room to see their eye protection.  If I fail to have every tanner to have eye protection when they enter my tanning rooms I am subject to a per offense fine on the spot for every customer that doesn't have proper FDA compliant eye protection.

2.  I will be fine; I just keep my eyes closed during tanning because I don't want raccoon eyes.

Absolutely not!  Your eyelids block less than 25% of the damaging rays.  So keeping them closed when not wearing eye protection is not good enough!   

If you don't believe me try this experiment.  Take a flashlight and turn it on.  Hold it to your fingers and you should see the outlines of finger bones and some veins through your fingers.  Think about how much thicker your fingers are than your eyelids.  Now hold the flashlight up and shine it across your closed eyes, you should see light through your lids. Now pass a hand between the flashlight and your face, see shadows?  If you can see light and shadows with a 5 watt flashlight (four ‘D’ batteries generate 5 watts of power), imagine your eyes in one of our tanning bed with the average watts being over 3800!

The best way to avoid the dreaded Raccoon eyes is not to go without your eye protection, but to wash your face before tanning (using a fresh-ease towelette is one way) to remove any SPF often found in cosmetics.  Adjust your eyewear position slightly from session to session and using more than one type of eyewear.  The single use wink-ease can be formed into a tighter cone to fit smaller eyes.  Lastly, use a bronzing powder to touch up the pale eye area.

All it takes is one session to receive Photokeratitis or corneal burn. The symptoms are tearing, pain and blurring.   If this happens seek medical attention immediately!   It can happen indoors or outdoors so make sure your sunglasses are protecting your eyes also! 

3. Besides Corneal Burns, what can happen to my eyes if I don't wear proper eye protection?

Glad you asked!  

1.  Night Vision ~ Night Blindness is when lights are extremely intense at night.  It creates a haze around lights and makes it hard to judge distances.  There are no surgeries or drugs that can correct night vision damage.

 2.  Color Vision Loss ~ the only way to lose your color vision is by UV over exposure. Color perception can be diminished.  Colors aren’t vivid, they are hazy and distorted.    Blue is the first primary color that you will lose.  There are no surgeries or drugs that can correct color vision loss.

3. Cataracts ~ occur over time when your eyes are exposed to ultraviolet light, such as the sun and tanning beds. Blue eyed, green eyed and gray-eyed people are most at risk, as their eyes are a lower, more sensitive “skin type” than brown and black-eyed people. The lens simply “solarizes” and gets cloudy with long-term UV exposure, like a sun bed acrylic shield. Luckily, the surgery is very simple today – just a lens replacement that can be performed in an ophthalmologist’s office – and results in restored vision.

It’s easy to believe that cataracts are something only our grandparents had, but they’re not. Now that many of us have leisure time outside and live in sunny climates, we are seeing cataracts form in younger and younger people. Unfortunately, tanning beds contribute to the formation of cataracts if you use them without eye protection. By the way, a towel over the face isn’t protecting your eyes or your skin; it’s an SPF 5!

4. Basal Cell Carcinoma ~ Delicate eye tissue can be damaged by overexposure to UV light.

4. Is it true that since I cover my face with a towel when I tan, I don't need eye protection?

NO!!!A towel or shirt offers at best an SPF of 5 or 6 - it does not block the UV light from your face and it is not protecting your eyes!  If you don't want to expose your face to any UVB rays,  you need to use a product with SPF 25 and wear FDA compliant eye protection. 

Here is a good rule of thumb:  If water can penetrate it, so can UV rays. 

But let’s talk about that towel not protecting your skin…

Did you know that many clothing manufacturers are now offering UV-block clothing? Why would they do that? Simply because the summer clothes we wear outside are NOT protecting your skin from UV damage. Yes, the tanning rays are sufficiently blocked so you aren’t tanning; but all the invisible rays are going through clothing – not tanning you and possibly damaging your skin! “Weave is more important than fabric type,” reports the Skin Cancer Foundation newsletter. “The tighter the weave, the higher the SPF and darker clothes tend to be a higher SPF,” the report asserts.

New research from the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA suggests that the most popular summer garb – T-shirts and polo shirts – are not adequate protection, as their SPF rank is 6.5. This has lead to the creation of new high-tech clothing that will block the rays when you wear it outside. The new garments are coated with colorless compounds that absorb UV and offer an SPF of 30 or more.

Still want to protect your eyes with just a towel???

5. Do I need to remove my contact lenses before my tanning session?

You are not required by law to remove contacts while tanning; what the law requires is that you wear FDA compliant eye protection during a UA session.  If you wear contacts while tanning, they may dry out, causing itching and irritation.  The drying is a result of the dry heat and air from the fans common to tanning units. You can easily prevent your contacts from drying out by using eye drops before and after your tanning session. 

6.  My contact lenses have UV-block.  If I wear them in the tanning bed, do I still need eyewear too?

Absolutely!  This is very important!  Contacts only cover the iris and pupil.  The whites of your eyes aren't covered and are left unprotected and so is the delicate skin around your eyes.  You need to wear FDA compliant eyewear in order to protect your entire eye! 

7.  My eye protection is very light colored and I can see through it.  Is it still protecting my eyes?

If your eye protection is new and was designed that way then, yes.  The ability of eyewear to block UV has nothing to do with the shaded lenses.  Dark colored lenses block visible light and just make it more comfortable to relax or sleep while tanning in a brightly lit tanning bed.  

8.  If I open my eyes while wearing my eyewear in the tanning bed, am I hurting my eyes?

Absolutely not!  If you are wearing FDA compliant eyewear, your vision is protected as long as your eyewear fits properly.  Feel free to open your eyes, check the time, adjust the fans, you can even lay on your side or stomach.

9.  Why don't you furnish goggles for me to use?

 When you ask this question think about your eyewear like your toothbrush.  Would you want to share a "community" toothbrush?  Think about it, both your mouth and eyes have body fluids in and around them.  More colds are passed by contact with your eyes than your mouth!  With the possibility of contracting Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye), Molluscum Contagiosum (warts on the eyelid), or Herpes Simplex Blepharitis (Cold Sore on the Eye) the decision was easy.  No community eyewear! 

10.  I just throw my eyewear in my purse or in the glove box in my car, is that fine?

Once again, when you ask this question think about your eyewear like your toothbrush.  Would you want to use a toothbrush from the bottom or your purse or from a compartment in your car?  I hope not!  Hands should not touch any area that is going to touch your eyes. You should wash and dry them after ever use.  They should be stored in a re-sealable bag (little plastic snack bags) and this will avoid all those contaminant's in your gym bag, car or purses!.  If that is too much trouble you might want to consider the "one-time use" wink-ease.   

11.  I have had my eyewear for a couple of years now, are they still good?

UV light is harsh and damaging.  It is recommended that you replace your eye protection like you would your toothbrush or at least annually.  Hard to remember when a year is up?  Buy them on a birthday, anniversary or every March...The "eyes" of March, yea I know that is corny, but if it works!!

12.  You keep mentioning FDA compliant, what does that mean?

The eye protection must block 99% of the UVA rays and 99.9% of the UVB rays.  If we sell the eye wear then it is FDA compliant. 

13. Did you know that the decisions made today tanning can affect your career choice later?            

Some young tanners are shocked to find out that their future careers are not going to be in fashion or Web design. They didn't realize that they aren't going to make it as a pilot or home interiors specialist. One had been planning a career in cosmetics, and those hopes were also dashed. Some college kids didn't realized their careers in advertising and graphic design were over before they had begun.

“I was hoping to design CD jackets for rock bands,” said one young man. “I hadn’t realized that tanning without eyewear for the last couple of years had ruined my color vision, where sharp color vision is vital to a graphic arts career.”

Don’t confuse color vision, which is the ability to discern certain shades and hues of a single color, with color blindness, which is a genetic trait. Color blindness most often affects men, and they can lack the ability to tell green from red or red from brown. Color vision loss, which we are discussing here, is caused by overexposure to UV light either outdoors or in a tanning bed.

There isn’t a drug or surgery to restore loss of color vision.  The loss is gradual, from numerous exposures to ultraviolet radiation from intense sunlight or from tanning at a tanning salon and not wearing FDA compliant protective eyewear.  It is not unusual for young adults to have already noticed color vision loss. There is no way to restore your damaged color receptors; your color vision just continues to diminish with each bright day at the beach without sunglasses and each tanning session without eye protection.

“So what?”  I hear this lot from people who tan and don’t wear goggles. The answer is that not only is your world getting more and more dull to look at, but as your ability to discern bright colors fades, your fashion sense is going down the tubes as well! Your ability to choose monochromatic colors is diminishing – so what you think is a matching jacket and earrings can be several shades off. And blending makeup – well, we’ve all seen the gal who doesn’t have her foundation blended well…now you know why! She’s a sun worshipper, and not a sunglasses worshipper!

It’s really crazy to let a fear of raccoon eyes damage your career options before you get started, and to see the world as a dimmer place! Simply adjust your eyewear a bit when you tan to minimize any tan lines and keep your vision bright!

NOW LETS SEE IF YOU WERE PAYING ATTENTION

 

1) Is it okay to open your eyes while tanning if you are wearing protective goggles or disposable eye protection?
Yes/No

2) If you don’t want to tan your face, you can protect it by covering it with a towel or t-shirt.
True/False

3) Colds and flu are passed more through the mouth than the eyes.
True/False

4) The best place to keep your own goggles is on your rear-view mirror, so you always have them with you when you go to tan.
True/False

5) You can’t re-use disposable eyewear because the UV protection only works once.
True/False

6) The No. 1 reason tanners seek medical help after a single tanning session is:
a) skin burns
b) facial burns
c) eye burns
d) reaction to tingle/hot-action lotion

7) Night vision loss can be restored with surgery.
True/False

8) Blue-eyed persons will get growths on their eyes from tanning without protection faster than brown-eyed persons will.
True/False

9) The best way to avoid “raccoon eyes” is:
a) wash your face before tanning to remove SPF left from facial products
b) adjust eyewear slightly while tanning
c) change eyewear types frequently
d) use disposable eyewear that can be formed into a tight cone
e) use bronzing powder to touch up the pale eye area
f) all of the above

10) The same pair of goggles can be worn for years.
True/False

How do you rate as an eye protection expert?

Eye Protection Quiz Answers:

 

1) YES! FDA-compliant goggles and disposable eyewear completely block the damaging UV rays, so it is fine to open your eyes open while tanning IF you are wearing approved eye protection. Goggles are designed to be see-through, so you can see the session timer, change the intensity of the facials, and get out of the tanning unit in an emergency. Closing your eyes with eye protection on doesn’t give you any extra protection! Surprised? Read on!

2) False! A t-shirt or towel provides an SPF (Sun Protection Factor) of only 5 and will NOT protect your facial skin or your eyes. Instead, use a lotion with SPF 15 or higher and designed for the face to prevent your pores from being clogged. Your salon may retail “UV block face masks” that are effective, but wear your eye protection, as well, to protect your eyes.

3) False! Colds and flu are spread much more often by rubbing your eyes with infected hands then by putting your hands near your mouth. Mouth tissues have protective bacteria and eyes do not, making the eyes much more vulnerable to infections.

4) False! The worst place to keep goggles is in an exposed area where they will pick up contaminants from your coughs, sneezes and the air. The BEST place to keep them is in a Ziploc bag, so they don’t come in contact with contaminates from your hands, purse or gym bag. Think of your goggles as you would your toothbrush—keep them clean!

5) False...but a trick question. You should wear disposable eye protection only once for sanitary reasons. Disposable eyewear is a Class One Medical Product, like tongue depressors and cotton balls. You wouldn’t want the doctor using a tongue depressor you had used last week, would you?

6) c) eye burns. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tracked this every year since 1978, and EVERY YEAR, more indoor tanners are hospitalized for eye burns than any other reason! Eye burns are very painful – eyes are red, itchy and watery – and can occur from only one unprotected tanning session. Wear your eye protection!

7) False! Did you know that the only way to lose your night vision is by UV overexposure, which can happen indoors and outdoors? There is no drug or surgery to restore night vision, and it is very common for teenagers and young adults to have already suffered substantial loss. So, get those sunglasses on outside and wear your eye protection when you tan.

8) True! Blue-eyed, green-eyed and gray-eyed tanners will suffer more UV-related eye damage than brown eyed-tanners. Fair-eyed people are lighter skin types and have less built-in UV protection in their eyes and skin than do dark skinned and dark eyed people. All the more reason to wear your goggles!

9) f) All of the above. Most women’s cosmetics contain SPF including eye concealer, eye shadow and eye creams. Slightly adjusting eye protection during the session and changing eyewear types are great ways to avoid developing a defined tan line around the eye. It is NOT recommended to remove eyewear for the last few minutes of a session. Find the eyewear type that best fits the shape of your eyes. Bronzing powder is an easy way to touch up the eye area.

10) False. Goggles can break down with repeated UV exposure and they also become dirty from being touched. Make sure you are cleaning your goggles with anti-bacterial soap, drying thoroughly and storing them in a clean place. Don’t allow them to get twisted or bent by carrying them in a purse or gym bag; contaminants can get into gouges or cuts in the plastic and ruin the goggles. It’s best to replace goggles as often as you would your toothbrush, or use one-time, disposable eye protection.

Information given on this website is for consumer education only.  It is not meant to replace the advice of a qualified health care professional.