I need to know the UVB and UVA percentages of my sunlamps for insurance purposes. Also, what is the UL listing for sunlamps?
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Team Wolff gets calls with these questions all the time.
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Let’s do the easy one first: fluorescent lamps, whether for tanning or any other use, do not have a UL (Underwriter’s Laboratories) listing. None is required, and UL has no category for fluorescent lamps.
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In the insurance business there is a tendency, as it relates to the tanning industry, to grant or deny coverage to salon operators based upon irrelevant considerations. The amount of UVB emitted by a given indoor tanning lamp, or the ratios of UVB and UVA, are inappropriate for evaluating coverage of a particular tanning salon, because the issue of risk is much more complex.
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The spectral output of lamps does not, in and of itself, constitute the standard by which a given tanning system should be judged. All sunlamps are different, but each one can perform only as well as the equipment in which it is installed. Factors such as the transmission of the acrylic sheet, the type of ballast employed, the distance of the lamp from the tanner, the degree of reflectivity of the reflector system, and voltage supplied to the equipment all play roles in the amount of output emitted by sunlamps and its influence on the human body. Thus, to say that a tanning lamp is either “good” or “bad” because it emits a certain spectrum of light is a very inaccurate and misleading way in which to judge its merits.
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Maybe insurance companies should be more concerned with whether the salon operates in a professional manner.
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What is important in considering responsible tanning practices is the exposure schedule. Any indoor tanning unit manufactured after September 1986 must have imprinted on it the appropriate recommended exposure schedule for certain skin types. The manufacturer of a given unit must designate the lamp type to be installed in it. The unit’s total UV output must then be measured by an independent laboratory, where its exposure schedule can then be determined according to the guidelines supplied by the Food and Drug Administration. This total output cannot exceed four (4) MED (minimal erythemal dose). The test results are then forwarded to the FDA where they are kept on file. The FDA, which regulates the indoor tanning industry, is not necessarily concerned with only the amounts of UVA and UVB a tanning lamp emits. They are concerned with the length of time that a person spends exposed to known dose levels of UV light.
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Maybe insurance companies should be more concerned with factors such as whether or not the salon: operates FDA-complaint equipment; adequately trains its staff with an accredited training program; provides FDA-compliant protective eyewear; requires tanners to sign a risk acknowledgment document; uses the original lamp that came with the equipment or an FDA compatible replacement lamp; maintains cleanliness standards throughout the salon and operates in a professional manner. Until then, Team Wolff will be happy to speak with your insurance agent if the question involves Wolff System sunlamps. Typically, this resolves the issue in your favor.
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