Tanning without health risk

Just spray on a little sunshine

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Vienna (pts029/16.04.2004/13:40) Brown is in - as in tanned skin. And it's in more than ever now that "spray tanning" has spread beyond the big cities into salons, health clubs, spas and malls across the USA.

Strip, spray and go. You can be bronzed in minutes with someone who "paints" you with an airbrush. No more turning contortionist by trying to cover hard-to-reach parts of your body with a self-tanning lotion. No more smelling like a chemical factory from foul lotions and sprays.

Even better, dermatologists say, it's as safe as applying makeup. And there's no more worrying about getting skin cancer from the sun or from the ultraviolet rays of conventional tanning beds and booths. Sunless tanning is just that: It stains the skin, leaving the appearance of a tan that lasts five to seven days.

In fact, spray tanning first came to widespread attention last year when the golden glow of the celebrity tribe - Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Christina Aguilera, to name a few - turned out to be fake. They made it not just acceptable but fashionable.

What's fashionable is usually lucrative. About 28 million Americans go to a tanning facility in any given year, according to the Indoor Tanning Association. For the past 20 years, UV tanning was the only kind of salon tanning available, and eventually it grew to a $5 billion-a-year industry, despite warnings from dermatologists about the dangers of prolonged exposure to UV rays.

"UV light causes tremendous damage to the skin, not only in terms of aging but in being the main risk factor for all three types of skin cancer," says Constance Nagi, chief of the dermatology division at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. "For those who think they look or feel better with tan skin, the spray tan is very safe."

The UV tanning industry initially viewed spray tanning as a threat; now it's embraced as a boost for revenue and clientele. Of the estimated 25,000 tanning salons in the USA, most of them offer sunless tanning or will be offering it soon, the Indoor Tanning Association says.

"It's bringing in a whole new consumer, and it's enhanced our business with our existing clientele because it gives them another way to even out their (conventional UV) tan," says Scott Shortnacy, owner of a chain of seven Solar Planet salons in the Washington, D.C., metro area. "Just in the month of June, our sales were up 100%."

Soon, spray tanning also could be as common in hotels as swimming pools - and just as necessary to stay competitive. "The spray tanning industry in the US has only scratched the surface," says Franz Schillinger, CEO of SchillingerPartner, an internationally operating company, which is representing the Aruba Tan Airbrush Tanning System in Europe. "You're going to see it on cruise ships and at beach resorts. People want to be tan before they go on vacation as well as after, so we can get them coming and going."

New York based Aruba Tan is a leader in airbrush tanning technology working with the world's top manufacturers and labs to produce state of the art equipment and the finest misted self-tanner formulation.

Alexander Teissig
(Public Relation)
Phone: +43/1/319 05 13
Fax: +43/1/319 05 92
E-mail: info@arubataneurope.com
http://www.arubataneurope.com

Aussender:	pts - single press release
Ansprechpartner:	Alexander Teissig
Tel.:	+43/1/319 05 13
E-Mail:	info@arubataneurope.com