Opinion: We must wake up to the dangers of sunbeds

It's nearly bare the flesh time.

A glimpse of sunshine always prompts the great British unveiling of skin.

With the beauty press talking about getting “summer ready” from February, the reckless and ignorant are ignoring the much-publicised skin cancer dangers of sunbeds to bake themselves with tanning lamps of ultraviolet radiation to produce a cosmetic tan.

It shocked me that sunbed use are as popular as ever. Not the old home sandwich-maker sunbeds of the ‘80s, but the stand-up booths in tanning salons.

It’s called the "Love Island effect."

Pale is pasty and brown is attractive, period, despite the risks of becoming one of the 2,300 who die every year from melanoma or one of the tens of thousands who have to have moles and chunks of skin cut out regularly because they have turned cancerous.

Why do these machines still exist? The dangers of exposure to the sun’s natural rays are well known.

How can people believe artificial ways to release melanin to change the colour of skin be any better?

Perhaps they believe faking it isn’t as dangerous and is a safer alternative like spray tans and creams? They might believe that because they don’t burn, it is a safer alternative to being outside.

Sunbeds work by creating the chemical melanin with tanning lamps that emit the same type of UV rays as the sun. They emit ultraviolet radiation to produce melanin, which tans the skin.

The charity Melanoma Focus is trying to reenergise the awareness campaign about the dangers, stressing sun bed tans are just as dangerous as lying out in the sun.

Unsurprisingly, 18-25-year-olds are the main users; this was the generation slathered in sun cream by their hyper-vigilant parents amid the national campaigns to stay safe in the sun. They must know the hazards.

They would see the aftermath of what sun rays did to their parents and grandparents’ generation and the rise in melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, risi8ng in the UK.

Yet sunbed use across the UK is alarmingly high. Like smoking, it’s a serious health concern.

It uses NHS resources that could be avoided by personal responsibility and action.

85pc of melanoma cases are caused by exposure to too much ultraviolet radiation.

Sunbed use might be well-regulated – the industry says if only sunshine was regulated as well – with trained staff and safety measures that sunbathing outside but regulations don’t eradicate risk.

It’s a part of the beauty business that needs a health warning and the dangers rammed home to young people.

Effects of the sun are horribly ageing and appeal to the vanity of not ending up with leathery crinkly skin.

Fake it not bake – and out of a bottle.

We can learn so much from Gen Z

There’s much claptrap and nonsense spoken about snowflakes and feeble self-centred Generation Z.

Much can be learned from the under 30s about their attitude to life, work, and play.

They are so sorted about the life they want and how they want to live it, older people are unnerved by their confidence.

They are bringing about a revolution in the workplace, turning the formal and corporate into the informal and communicative, switched the formal stuffy suit and heels office dress culture into the comfortable and trainer look, and have overturned the live to work all hours culture into the work to live.

They work their contracted hours and their downtime sacred.

They are not hung up on owning stuff. Homeownership feels like a pipedream, and they are less materialistic and more focused on making connections.

They have helped shape a more flexible approach to work of getting the job done whether it’s in the office or at home ditching the rigidity.

All of this means communication too, is evolving in the workplace with Gen Z are changing the formality of language in the workplace.

They have direct communication style, unfazed by hierarchy, are polite and friendly, and don’t believe competent and professional is defined by a silly corporate speak or work wear.

They find the jargon and corporate speak comical and are leading the charge with direct and open communication that everyone can understand.

They are the generation who have been told since childhood to be themselves, value themselves, respect themselves, make themselves heard – their opinions are as valid and of value as older more experienced people, they bring a fresh perspective and deserve to be heard.

The result: rounded capable human beings with decent values.

These were the kids who saw competition taken out of sports days and everyone valued for their differences – ridiculed at the time - but they have grown up respecting others, know how to build connections and relationships and challenge conventions.

And they are taking business leaders with them as a less formal approach seeps through organisations allowing for personal expression.

These are not snowflakes; they are assertive, bold, natural changers and forces for good.

They have been taught how to negotiate and not demand and have developed communication styles to bring people with them.

I’m envious of their self-belief, life skills and confidence.

Instead of criticising because we’re a little intimidated we should applaud the value Generation Z and the hope we have for them to make the future better than today’s world.

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