PREVENTABLE Injuries For Children

The indoor tanning industry was under siege this spring and summer like never before. The anti-tanning coalition revved up its spin machine and threw the media choice selections in an effort to scare or persuade even the most sensible parent to keep their children from tanning indoors. Political representatives from states, cities, townships and counties introduced legislation to keep youths (typically age 18 and under) away from indoor tanning salons.

This maelstrom occurred without evidence of any fatality in more than 25 years of providing the controlled service of indoor tanning to millions of people. The American Academy of Dermatology's James Spencer, M.D. however did note that there were more than 700 trips to the emergency room last year as an alleged result of tanning indoors. Since there are millions of annual tanning sessions, it means the chance of injury from indoor tanning is well more than 1 in 1 million.

Here is a point to consider: "The five biggest summer risks would involve riding in a car, swimming, playing on wheeled play objects like scooters and bikes, walking safely as well as playing safely both outdoors and indoors." Wow, walking safely? I'll take my chances tanning indoors any day.

Speaking of emergency room visits, perhaps the "epidemic" of injuries from lawn mowers may have slipped your eye. Examine the following excerpt from Duke University's Med News (www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=9693 ) “... If this summer is like summers past, children will be rushed to emergency rooms in the United States nearly 3 million times for serious preventable injuries. Of that number, some 6,000 will die and more than 100,000 will be disabled permanently. Preventable injuries are the leading killer of children 14 and under ... ." Whoa! Three million trips to the emergency room and some 6,000 deaths this summer. Where is the public outrage? Where is ABC's 20/20 or NBC’s Dateline? Where are the bills to ban the sale of lawn mowers?

"Every year, approximately 68,000 Americans are injured in lawn mower accidents, and children are involved in nearly 10,000 of those incidents," said L. Scott Levin, M.D., chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Duke.

He also said children are more likely to die from lawn mower injuries. "These injuries are often life-threatening and because of their devastating nature, many of these young victims require life-long care," Levin said.

"Lawn mower injuries can range from deep cuts to limb amputations. Victims also can lose fingers and toes, suffer broken bones, burns or sustain eye injuries. Recovering from these injuries often requires help from a team of physicians in plastic surgery, microsurgery, pediatric surgery and orthopedics and can involve multiple operations to restore function."

Read that quote again—it certainly puts risks involving indoor tanning in a different prospective. I hope that you've enjoyed your summer lawn and stayed free of injury. 

For information on LightSources tanning products, visit www.light-sources.com. If you have a question that you would like answered in this forum, e-mail joe_lsi@light-sources.com.