How Do Tanning Booths Work?

How Tanning Booths Work

Tanning booths and tanning beds make use of lamps that give off Ultra Violet radiation to mimic those given off by the sun. The UV radiation activates the melanin in human skin resulting in a darkening or tanning of the skin. The client either stands or lies in the tanning bed for up to 20 minutes of exposure at a time.

Tanning beds emit varying levels of radiation and are built to different specifications with different settings. Tanning booths and beds typically generate a combination of both UVA and UVB light in a 95 percent UVA to 5 percent UVB ratio. Tanning beds and booths use varying light sources or bulbs from fluorescent, which is most common, to quartz lamps, which are more costly and less widely used.

Booths Versus Beds

The difference between a tanning booth and a tanning bed is that in a tanning bed you lie down on an acrylic panel suspended over the UV lamps, and in a tanning booth you stand while the UV lamps surround you. Tanning booths tend to have more powerful lamps than beds.

Safety Precautions

Eye goggles are always worn during the tanning process as damage can be done to the human eye with exposure to the UV light emitted from the beds. Because of the UV radiation and the negative health impacts it can have on the human body, particularly by speeding the aging of the skin and skin cancers, UV tanning beds are discouraged by dermatologists and many health care professionals.