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The dangers of a deadly tan
I missed the TV report on this last night, but just heard the follow up on talk back radio. It was quite easily the most horrible conversation I've ever listened to, with the host chatting to Clare Oliver. She's 25 and has developed late-stage cancer as a result of visiting solariums. The whole conversation was like listening to a dead person, with the whole context about what her life would have been like, what she wanted to do. Her only goal now is to live till Saturday so she can enjoy her 26th birthday.
Post Last Updated: 21.08.2007 at 16.41
The transcript from the 7.30 Report on it;
KERRY O'BRIEN: The battle waged by health experts to convince young people in particular about the dangers of tanning appears to be a losing one. According to Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Hospital, melanoma is the most common form of cancer in the 15 to 30 age group and increasingly it's being linked in part to a veritable explosion in the number of outlets being opened by the unregulated solarium industry. Tonight, Clare Oliver - a young woman who's most precious wish is to live long enough to see her 26th birthday next weekend - offers heartfelt advice about the dangers of a deadly tan.
Heather Ewart reports.
CLARE OLIVER: Here I am, 25 and I've been told that I've got only a few weeks to live and I don't think anything, you know, solariums, looking good, having a golden tan is worth that.
HEATHER EWART: This is Clare Oliver, and her biggest aim in life is to make it to her 26th birthday next weekend.
CLARE OLIVER: I was, you know, a 22-year-old, just graduated from uni, and just got into the work force and, yeah, it was all great and then suddenly my world came crashing down. I was told I had cancer.
HEATHER EWART: Clare Oliver is the only child of single parent Priscilla Lau Oliver, who maintains a constant vigil by her daughter's bedside. Clare Oliver was diagnosed with a melanoma four years ago and now in the final days of her life, wants to give young people this warning about solariums.
CLARE OLIVER: I'd much rather be pale, you know, have my life and be able to travel the world again, and you know, go out and work and do what normal 25-year-olds do and, you know, in one week-and-a-bit it's my 26th birthday and I sit here and I don't even know whether I'm going to make that.
HEATHER EWART: Her predicament is all too familiar to Louise White. Last year her own daughter died of a melanoma at the same age. She set up a melanoma foundation to try to raise public awareness of the disease and encourage regular medical checks.
LOUISE WHITE, EMILY TAPP MELANOMA FOUNDATION INC.: The main reason is really to get this message out there for people to understand that it could happen to any family, and I just couldn't let another family go through it.
HEATHER EWART: Melanoma is now the most common form of cancer amongst the 15 to 30-year-old age group. And health authorities are starting to wonder if this is somehow linked to the rapidly growing solarium industry.
ASSOC. PROF. GRANT MCARTHUR, PETER MACCALLUM CANCER CENTRE: That is certainly possible and what is alarming is that in Melbourne over the last decade, there has been a 500 per cent increase in the number of listed solariums in the Yellow Pages. This is really very concerning.
How are you doing today, Clare?
HEATHER EWART: Clare Oliver worries her use of solariums is responsible for her fate. But her specialist and melanoma expert at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, is reluctant to say it's the sole cause.
GRANT MCARTHUR: What is very clear is that solariums are dangerous. They deliver five times the dose of UV radiation than the midday sun. They are also clearly linked to increased rates of skin cancer. So we believe solariums are dangerous and should be avoided.
HEATHER EWART: Yet, new solariums are opening everywhere. Nationwide there's been a 300 per cent increase in the last decade, and Melbourne has taken to them even more enthusiastically. Clare Oliver was one user to take advantage of a package deal; 20 visits at a cheaper price.
CLARE OLIVER: Two years after that I soon found that I had melanoma in my lymph nodes, in my left (inaudible), which is my left arm pit.
HEATHER EWART: How often did you go to the solarium?
CLARE OLIVER: They said that it was best that it was every, every second day and that was the most effective way to get the tan. So that's what they said and I followed them and, yeah. I didn't really know the risks that I was posing myself to.
SCOTT MENEILLY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BODY BRONZE: I think she would be looking for something to blame. I think people want to be brown because it gives you more confidence, it makes you feel better and it's an individual thing.
HEATHER EWART: Body Bronze is the biggest solarium franchise network in Victoria with 42 outlets. Its CEO insists they adhere to industry standards and clients must take responsibility for their own actions.
SCOTT MENEILLY: I don't know how often she was tanning. In accordance with the Australian standards, and it's a recommendation that you don't tan more frequently than once every 48 hours.
HEATHER EWART: Why were you so keen to get a tan?
CLARE OLIVER: I guess it's just embedded in the Australian culture to be dark, not just dark but that golden tan. It sort of symbolises health, it symbolises just being a beautiful girl.
CRAIG SINCLAIR, CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA: We've been seeing because of this greater commercial environment, operators introducing these unlimited sessions. You pay $70 for a month and you can go in as much as you like.
HEATHER EWART: Why the need to offer these kind of packages?
SCOTT MENEILLY: Sun tanning salons is a business, you know, and um, it's quite simply that. We have to remain competitive.
HEATHER EWART: It's becoming increasingly competitive. Even though Body Bronze is a pioneer, says it issues clients brochures explaining the risk, checks their skin types and that they're over the age of 15, there are no regulations to govern this flourishing industry, just a voluntary code of standards.
CRAIG SINCLAIR: There is no compliance. The industry itself is certainly, have no self compliance. There are no governments compliance in relation to solarium operations and so it's a free reign.
SCOTT MENEILLY: We've always thought there was a need for regulations and it's primarily because what we're dealing with is people's skin and that is a very sensitive thing and at the moment if you've got the money, then you can buy yourself a sun bed and you can rent a space and you can sell time to people.
HEATHER EWART: It's up to each State Government to introduce regulations and Victoria is starting to consider this. Now the Federal Government is becoming concerned. This is an industry growing out of control and its Health Department is holding talks with the States and health experts on the need for regulations.
That may be of some comfort to Clare Oliver, her mother and their new-found friend Louise White.
LOUISE WHITE: Somehow someone's got to speak out. And meeting Clare was just amazing and knowing, you know, what an educated and articulate girl she is and it's so unfair, that she had so much to give. Just like Emily.
HEATHER EWART: Louise White is helping Clare Oliver and her mother plan a 26th birthday party for a small group of friends this Saturday. All that matters to Clare Oliver is that her mother be with her.
CLARE OLIVER: She's been a rock. We don't have any family in Australia and, yeah, I don't know what I'd do without her.
HEATHER EWART: You're very brave to speak out like this.
CLARE OLIVER: No, not at all. A lot of people told me all the time how brave I am. I don't understand why they think I'm brave. I'm just living my life and, you know, if coming out and talking about, you know, melanoma or the risks involved and all that, you know, can help people, why not? All I have to do is open my mouth, you know, yeah.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And more power to her. That report from Heather Ewart.
KERRY O'BRIEN: The battle waged by health experts to convince young people in particular about the dangers of tanning appears to be a losing one. According to Melbourne's Peter MacCallum Hospital, melanoma is the most common form of cancer in the 15 to 30 age group and increasingly it's being linked in part to a veritable explosion in the number of outlets being opened by the unregulated solarium industry. Tonight, Clare Oliver - a young woman who's most precious wish is to live long enough to see her 26th birthday next weekend - offers heartfelt advice about the dangers of a deadly tan.
Heather Ewart reports.
CLARE OLIVER: Here I am, 25 and I've been told that I've got only a few weeks to live and I don't think anything, you know, solariums, looking good, having a golden tan is worth that.
HEATHER EWART: This is Clare Oliver, and her biggest aim in life is to make it to her 26th birthday next weekend.
CLARE OLIVER: I was, you know, a 22-year-old, just graduated from uni, and just got into the work force and, yeah, it was all great and then suddenly my world came crashing down. I was told I had cancer.
HEATHER EWART: Clare Oliver is the only child of single parent Priscilla Lau Oliver, who maintains a constant vigil by her daughter's bedside. Clare Oliver was diagnosed with a melanoma four years ago and now in the final days of her life, wants to give young people this warning about solariums.
CLARE OLIVER: I'd much rather be pale, you know, have my life and be able to travel the world again, and you know, go out and work and do what normal 25-year-olds do and, you know, in one week-and-a-bit it's my 26th birthday and I sit here and I don't even know whether I'm going to make that.
HEATHER EWART: Her predicament is all too familiar to Louise White. Last year her own daughter died of a melanoma at the same age. She set up a melanoma foundation to try to raise public awareness of the disease and encourage regular medical checks.
LOUISE WHITE, EMILY TAPP MELANOMA FOUNDATION INC.: The main reason is really to get this message out there for people to understand that it could happen to any family, and I just couldn't let another family go through it.
HEATHER EWART: Melanoma is now the most common form of cancer amongst the 15 to 30-year-old age group. And health authorities are starting to wonder if this is somehow linked to the rapidly growing solarium industry.
ASSOC. PROF. GRANT MCARTHUR, PETER MACCALLUM CANCER CENTRE: That is certainly possible and what is alarming is that in Melbourne over the last decade, there has been a 500 per cent increase in the number of listed solariums in the Yellow Pages. This is really very concerning.
How are you doing today, Clare?
HEATHER EWART: Clare Oliver worries her use of solariums is responsible for her fate. But her specialist and melanoma expert at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, is reluctant to say it's the sole cause.
GRANT MCARTHUR: What is very clear is that solariums are dangerous. They deliver five times the dose of UV radiation than the midday sun. They are also clearly linked to increased rates of skin cancer. So we believe solariums are dangerous and should be avoided.
HEATHER EWART: Yet, new solariums are opening everywhere. Nationwide there's been a 300 per cent increase in the last decade, and Melbourne has taken to them even more enthusiastically. Clare Oliver was one user to take advantage of a package deal; 20 visits at a cheaper price.
CLARE OLIVER: Two years after that I soon found that I had melanoma in my lymph nodes, in my left (inaudible), which is my left arm pit.
HEATHER EWART: How often did you go to the solarium?
CLARE OLIVER: They said that it was best that it was every, every second day and that was the most effective way to get the tan. So that's what they said and I followed them and, yeah. I didn't really know the risks that I was posing myself to.
SCOTT MENEILLY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, BODY BRONZE: I think she would be looking for something to blame. I think people want to be brown because it gives you more confidence, it makes you feel better and it's an individual thing.
HEATHER EWART: Body Bronze is the biggest solarium franchise network in Victoria with 42 outlets. Its CEO insists they adhere to industry standards and clients must take responsibility for their own actions.
SCOTT MENEILLY: I don't know how often she was tanning. In accordance with the Australian standards, and it's a recommendation that you don't tan more frequently than once every 48 hours.
HEATHER EWART: Why were you so keen to get a tan?
CLARE OLIVER: I guess it's just embedded in the Australian culture to be dark, not just dark but that golden tan. It sort of symbolises health, it symbolises just being a beautiful girl.
CRAIG SINCLAIR, CANCER COUNCIL VICTORIA: We've been seeing because of this greater commercial environment, operators introducing these unlimited sessions. You pay $70 for a month and you can go in as much as you like.
HEATHER EWART: Why the need to offer these kind of packages?
SCOTT MENEILLY: Sun tanning salons is a business, you know, and um, it's quite simply that. We have to remain competitive.
HEATHER EWART: It's becoming increasingly competitive. Even though Body Bronze is a pioneer, says it issues clients brochures explaining the risk, checks their skin types and that they're over the age of 15, there are no regulations to govern this flourishing industry, just a voluntary code of standards.
CRAIG SINCLAIR: There is no compliance. The industry itself is certainly, have no self compliance. There are no governments compliance in relation to solarium operations and so it's a free reign.
SCOTT MENEILLY: We've always thought there was a need for regulations and it's primarily because what we're dealing with is people's skin and that is a very sensitive thing and at the moment if you've got the money, then you can buy yourself a sun bed and you can rent a space and you can sell time to people.
HEATHER EWART: It's up to each State Government to introduce regulations and Victoria is starting to consider this. Now the Federal Government is becoming concerned. This is an industry growing out of control and its Health Department is holding talks with the States and health experts on the need for regulations.
That may be of some comfort to Clare Oliver, her mother and their new-found friend Louise White.
LOUISE WHITE: Somehow someone's got to speak out. And meeting Clare was just amazing and knowing, you know, what an educated and articulate girl she is and it's so unfair, that she had so much to give. Just like Emily.
HEATHER EWART: Louise White is helping Clare Oliver and her mother plan a 26th birthday party for a small group of friends this Saturday. All that matters to Clare Oliver is that her mother be with her.
CLARE OLIVER: She's been a rock. We don't have any family in Australia and, yeah, I don't know what I'd do without her.
HEATHER EWART: You're very brave to speak out like this.
CLARE OLIVER: No, not at all. A lot of people told me all the time how brave I am. I don't understand why they think I'm brave. I'm just living my life and, you know, if coming out and talking about, you know, melanoma or the risks involved and all that, you know, can help people, why not? All I have to do is open my mouth, you know, yeah.
KERRY O'BRIEN: And more power to her. That report from Heather Ewart.
The full interview is up here http://abc.net.au/news/video/2007/08/21/2011113.htm, though I think only Australians will be able to access it.
I think i read this at the right time or maybe not... i was planning my first ever visit to a solarium next week :S with my new housemate - she goes and i thought i'd go with her to quash my solarium virginity... I've kind of always been against fake tans and solariums... i'm just a little beachy queenslander who would much rather hit the sand and surf than climb into a coffin or paint myself. But now that Melbourne has officially taken away my natural golden glow and that little tan line from my pair of stubbies. I'm in a pickle... I think i'm just going to wait for the sun + warmth to come back and tan responsibly... with sunscreen...
I heard about some girl on a news program that had the problem of getting melanoma from a solarium...Not sure if it was the same girl as Clare, but it has definitely put me off going to the solariums much now. I've only been about 4 times but I always spaced them out like one 10-minute session every 4 weeks so it probably is not too bad as some people who go all the time...I thought solariums are safer than the actual sun.
Anyway after watching that girl who was dying so young, I think that it is better to use tanning cremes and bronzing gels and stuff rather than solariums or direct sun. Although MOST tanning cremes have an awful smell or take a bit of time to dry, I think. Recommend any?
Anyway after watching that girl who was dying so young, I think that it is better to use tanning cremes and bronzing gels and stuff rather than solariums or direct sun. Although MOST tanning cremes have an awful smell or take a bit of time to dry, I think. Recommend any?
Yeah it's likely to have been Clare. On the face of it, the sun is a lot safer than a solarium (in moderation of course).
Have you ever tried Sally Hansen misguided1? You'll find them at Priceline. Certainly the best one for getting a golden glow, as opposed to a crisp brown look.
Have you ever tried Sally Hansen misguided1? You'll find them at Priceline. Certainly the best one for getting a golden glow, as opposed to a crisp brown look.
Yeah I was told about this. Solariums are such an exploit on people right now. I've never been able to understand by being brown or golden depicts being healthy and beautiful? What is the value of this superficiality?
It is a waste that Clare passed away so young and hopefully this will serve as a wake up call to the general public. I think the term moderation needs to be brought up in this case. As with anything else such as alcohol, exercise, etc moderation and responsibility needs to be considered.
It is a waste that Clare passed away so young and hopefully this will serve as a wake up call to the general public. I think the term moderation needs to be brought up in this case. As with anything else such as alcohol, exercise, etc moderation and responsibility needs to be considered.
Post Last Updated: 16.09.2007 at 05.39
i agree with pirostitch, moderation is the key. If you wanna look tanned, buy some fake tan, or bornzer, or johnsons holiday skin, or something. A solarium might give you the look, but its also gonna give you wrinkles and can lead to cancer. Just because you're not lying out in the sun doesnt mean its any better for your skin.
And while im at it, i have naturally olive skin and really don't know what all the fuss is about! i dont get the brown being healthy thing either- and girls if your hair is lighter than ur skin, it generally looks fake.
And while im at it, i have naturally olive skin and really don't know what all the fuss is about! i dont get the brown being healthy thing either- and girls if your hair is lighter than ur skin, it generally looks fake.
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