Sunbed Shock

[SansaStark90]

I’ve been really stupid and gone on the sunbed for twenty minutes and the burns I’ve got - I’ve never seen skin as red. I’ve got like indents to my skin as though I’ve woken to stretch marks on my chest. Will these disappear? I’m in agony. I’ve never burnt and so didn’t know it could cause this kind of pain. I’m shaking shivering. I did this yesterday. Can someone reassure my health anxiety that these indents will all calm down?

How are you doing? You’re in extreme pain, potentially have deep burns, feel unwell, have sought medical advice which says A and. I’m hoping you have seen a dr by now and are hopefully feeling a but better.

My lovely 21 year old niece goes on sunbeds weekly and is bright bloody orange!
I really wish she wouldn't do it at all but its none of my business I suppose, thankfully DD uses fake Tan instead

Sunbeds have been weirdly co-opted by the woo woo lot where I live, the same people that use beef tallow instead of sun cream boak

I’m in some skin cancer support groups and they often pop up saying spf causes cancer and we should get into the sun more and use beef tallow etc

Yeah al all the influencers are always really red like doesn't it hurt apart from anything else??

I’ve seen them saying that the redness is toxins leaving your body after the sun has drawn them out. Idiots.

Really? Good grief. That's one of the stupidest things I've ever read. Incredible.

How on EARTH are you still ALIVE?

The good news is that their stupidity will naturally select them out of the human race, so we can all go back to not being so fucking insane.

I am always stunned sunbeds are still in business. I have known for decades about the link with skin cancer. The government should outright ban them. End of.

FFS OP GO TO A&E now!

She hasn't posted at all today, so may not be reading any posts. I hope she went to A&E, but I very much doubt it, unfortunately. 🙁It's very worrying.

@SansaStark90 i hope you’ve been seen quickly last night and you’re feeling better.
🫂🫂

These are the same types of people who say you should rub piss in your eyes and then that the redness of your eyes is because you’ve not quite rubbed enough piss in them yet.

Then they unironically call people sheep for believing in the conspiracy of repeatably provable science based medicine and advice. Why listen to that when you can rub piss in your eyes!? The sun doesn’t actually give you skin cancer, the pharmaceutical companies do.

OP I really hope you’ve seen a doctor because as PP have said, it’s a really serious state to put yourself in.

OP, I really hope you are doing ok. I had horrific sunburn on my legs when I was a teen and I will never forget the pain. It took weeks to be pain free as they blistered, I couldn't even walk. I hope you've got medical attention and are being looked after.

Did they manage to help you at A&E? It did sound like a good idea to go.

I don’t understand how you got to adulthood OP without knowing that 20 minutes on a sunbed would burn the living shit out of you.

I burnt like that once…..when I was 9 years old and someone who should have been taking care of me said I didn’t need sun cream for our last day on holiday in Spain! I ended up with two blisters-one that covered half of my back and one that covered my thigh.

The good news OP is that they didn’t scar if you are still worried about that.

Get yourself to minor injuries ASAP.

As an aside - and I realise it's not helpful, sorry OP, but I am just interested - why do people use sunbeds when you can just get a spray tan? I honestly don't understand it. It's sooooo bad for you! The people with the best skin in older age are the ones who've stayed out of the sun!

Is there a difference between the stand up sun showers which are 3 minutes vs the lay down which are not as strong?
Which did you use op?

They're banned here in Australia. Our sun does enough damage as it is as we have the highest rate of skin cancer in the world and it's drummed into us from early childhood to be sun smart.

This!!!!!
You are in pain
You rang the 111 services, which is a triage.

Don't listen to your Mum. She's not a burns expert is she?
What are you waiting for?

My DC was a marshal at a sports match and the back of his neck got burnt it didn't even look serious.. but he had sunstroke and needed treatment

Also take advice on when you will be able to have sun exposure again after this. I believe it takes six weeks for the skin to repair itself after serious burns like this.

I really hope you go and seek medical attention, there’s ointment they can give you for bad burns like that. Sympathies.

Sunbeds are classified as Group 1 carcinogens by the WHO — the same category as tobacco and asbestos. If something increases your cancer risk by up to 59%, downplaying it because "the absolute risk is still small" is incredibly misleading.

The issue isn’t whether the absolute risk sounds low — it’s about avoidable risk. Sunbeds are a completely unnecessary and preventable source of increased melanoma risk. Saying the risk “only increases from 2.44% to 3.05%” (or 3.88%) may sound small, but that’s still thousands of additional cancer cases — and for what? A tan that fades in a week?

It’s also misleading to compare it to road traffic accidents — people have to use roads. No one has to use sunbeds. And even if the death rate is “only” 0.49%, that’s still one in 204 people potentially dying from something that could have been prevented.

Finally, minimizing a known carcinogen because the lifetime risk seems abstract is exactly the kind of reasoning that public health experts warn against. It’s not “health anxiety” to point out real dangers — it’s informed caution.

But you are far intellectually superior to me and know best so I’ll keep my mouth shut 😂

I hope OP is feeling better today, x

Did you not count “Mississippily”? 😅