Step mums comment regarding tanning beds has upset me

Yabu to be upset by this comment as it is their choice to use tanning beds, and they are legal. However, I do agree with you OP, they’re not good for your health, but it’s the same for a lot of things, smoking, vaping, alcohol, junk food, sugar… these things are legal too and the risks are well known. It’s down to personal choice.

I wouldnt be upset op over your step mum's comment but you are right not to use them.
I used sunbeds in my twenties and early thirties. 3 times a week. So I was the extreme. I had skin cancer and had it removed twice on my legs. Skin grafts were painful.
Thankfully all ok but it is a worry. I am in my mid fifties now and would never have another sunbed again and will protect my skin. I have drummed it into my dc's. It is not worth it. It is like most things, you dont think it will ever happen to you as I always said to myself and than it did. I understand you are concerned but they wont listen to you as I was the same.

There is no such thing as a safe ‘base tan’. There is no such thing as a safe tan.

Any tan, even without any burning, still causes DNA damage.

I wouldn’t be upset, but when she’s having a suspicious mole removed I’d be revisiting that conversation so you can say you told her so.

Shes probably old school mentality where they just don't comprehend the risks. When I was younger (I'm 44) my mum encouraged me to use the sun bed before a holiday to prepare skin to get a better tan!! Horrifying thinking about it now considering I'm very pale and always burn

Factor 50 applied every 30 minutes is safer. There’s nothing you can do, though. Let them do what they wish.

It isn’t just the obvious dangers but why would anyone want wrinkly skin and a saggy neck? The same people using sun beds are probably spending a fortune on creams and supplements. It’s ridiculous! I am in my 50s with no wrinkles yet, I’ve actively avoided the sun for 20 years due to melanoma. I know ageing is inevitable but assuming the reason for using a sun bed is vanity related, why the fuck accelerate the aging process?

It fries my brain that anyone would use a sun bed given the risks but loads of people do! I got to a fitness class and there are a lot of women well into 60s/70s using them to ‘get a tan’. Bonkers!

I’ve had nhs treatment for a skin condition using sun beds which I was surprised by, but they started off at 2minute sessions and up to 12 minutes eventually the skin condition cleared but as soon as I stopped it returned so I refused any more. One of the first sessions of only 2 minutes burnt me so the damage is real and can happen so quickly

Tanning is literally the process of turning a skin into leather. They are foolish but it is a waste of your energy to be excessively upset by it, OP. You've already recognised that they are adults who are free to make their own choices.

A lady I work with , 49 , used sun beds all her life up until about 5/6 years ago .
Obviously skin cancer would be the biggest thing to worry about , but secondly then it ruins your skin , her neck is all crepey & she has far more wrinkles & lines than other women her age .
She eats healthily, doesn’t smoke, definitely not a big drinker .
Sun beds should be illegal.

A lot of people are unaware of the dangers when they start smoking because most people started as young teenagers/children thinking it looked cool. I started smoking at 11. My dad started smoking when he was 9. Disgusting, I know. Luckily kids are taught about the risks at school now and with the new ban it will be a thing of the past. I still smoke 27 years on and so far have no adverse effects but I don't like being a smoker anymore, it's just hard to break the habit.

I agree OP. Young people use them too which I’m amazed at, given the education on the harm of sunbeds.

If they consider the vanity issue, they will look like prunes when they are older. I know a few people who do.

Well not really as many of those patients now in their senior years weren’t as aware as today, sun beds are known to be a cause of skin cancer, and very quickly takes hold, and there is often a flippant attitude
Having worked in a cancer unit, it’s frustrating to treat these young people,
many like my friends son who continues to go on sun beds for cosmetic reasons only, even while starting treatment, while others often children wait treatment, generally fast tracked but the lists for assessment still grows, of course others are self risk cancers, and could also be seen on beaches up and down the coast in 31c besides warnings, but addiction slightly different from cosmetic only risk takers, they are often more vulnerable and victims of past society.
The conversation was regarding sun beds..

Her comment wasnt aimed at you so dont know why you are so upset.

The point was that smoking and tanning are both bad for your health not anything about how easy it is to stop them. Plus there's hardly anyone alive who wasn't aware of smoking being bad for your health when they started.

It would upset me, I lost a close family member to skin cancer. It’s an awful disease. But ultimately you can’t do anything about it, but continue to discourage your partner from using one!

It’s incredible sun bed places still exist. But I’m also incredulous people still sunbathe in the actual sun.

But I wouldn’t get upset about it, it’s not any of your business.

What about self inflicted lung cancer from smoking? Or liver damage from alcohol? Or heart disease caused by obesity?Should treatment for these also be self funded?

It's not just skin damage from sunbeds though. I'm blue-eyed and I've got a pterigium (benign growth in my eye) that appeared in my early 30s. I had lots of sun exposure on fortnightly holidays abroad as a child without sunglasses as my parents though they were pointless and just for fashion (like lots of people in the 70s and 80s). I was always in the pool (though not over midday) and I suspect the reflection from the water on my eyes was a major factor.

Optician told me you can also get it from sunbed use, especially if you're blue-eyed. Some people dont use the eye protection apparently as they dont want 'panda eyes' afterwards.

Worst case you need to get it surgically cut out once it starts to cover your pupil and affect your vision.

Is there any back story to this? I might get upset if I heard my mum talking like that to anyone young/impressionable about them as I carry a lot of resentment that she strongly encouraged/pressured me into using them in my early teens. She can knock herself out though

I can’t see who posted this comment but how unbelievably thick! Imagine saying one of the deadliest types of cancer is ‘no big deal’! 🤦‍♀️ If she genuinely did have melanoma it would not just have been ‘cut out’, there would have been a second surgery to remove more of the surrounding tissue. Your mother still sunbathing is going against all of the medical advice she would have been given! I had a second melanoma years after my first even after avoiding the sun completely! The risk of getting another is far greater than for the average person.

@Beamsss
It appeared to me that the poster was trying to educate you and not judge you.
Of course you’re entitled to take any risks you want but if you’re going to share incorrect beliefs then you have to anccept others to correct you.
The difference is that nobody is going to die from not going to the gym every day or eating the occasional processed meal. You can die as a result of one bad episode of sunburn so the scenarios are not really comparable.

My friends son spent hours every week on sun beds, his not long started treatment for skin cancer on his leg, people just don’t learn
then they add extra cost to the NHS and increase the waiting list for those suffering through no fault of their own.
Sun beds should be banned, and self inflicted cancer treatment should be paid for by the patient, they can afford the tanning sessions.

You can't argue with stupid. Let her get on with it,it's not your responsibility.