When confederates posing as 15-year-old, fair-skinned teens asked tanning operators about how often they could tan in a week, they were met with surprisingly encouraging remarks…
“…Come in and talk about a package…”
“Every day!”
“…Tanning package is only 3 tans for 3 dollars…”
The FDA warns that fair-skinned individuals should tan no more than three times during their first week using indoor tanning (1).
In 2006, CITY100 research assistants posing as prospective teen customers called tanning salon employees in 116 large U.S. cities. During these calls, they stated that they had fair skin and had never tanned before. They then asked how frequently they would be allowed to tan in the salons their first week using indoor tanning.
To learn about the practices of tanning salons in your state’s largest cities, select a state from the first menu, then a city from the second menu.
Reference:
(1) U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (1986). Policy on maximum timer interval and exposure schedule for sunlamps, August 21, 1986, Department of Health and Human Services. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Rockville, MD.
http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/radhlth/pdf/sunpol01.pdf