A sunbed emits ultraviolet radiation for cosmetic purposes, without dose calculation, clinical assessment or any record of cumulative exposure. United Kingdom health bodies advise against using one, and the guidance setting out that position is published and dated.
What does a sunbed emit?
Ultraviolet radiation, produced by lamps, delivered to the skin for the purpose of darkening it.
That is the whole of a sunbed’s mechanism, and it is the same kind of radiation the sun delivers. The marketing distinction that once circulated, separating a supposedly safer band from a harmful one, does not correspond to how published guidance treats the question. What the United Kingdom Health Security Agency publishes is unambiguous: there is no evidence to suggest any type of sunbed is less harmful than natural sun exposure.
The tanning that follows is melanin produced in response to radiation that has already arrived. It is the skin’s record of exposure rather than a shield acquired in advance.
Why do health bodies advise against cosmetic use?
Because the exposure is deliberate, repeated, and undertaken for appearance rather than for any clinical purpose, which puts the whole of it on one side of a risk and benefit calculation.
Ultraviolet exposure accumulates across a lifetime and its effects on skin accumulate with it. Guidance in the United Kingdom advises against sunbed use, and sets out particular caution for people with fair skin, people who burn readily, and people with a history of skin cancer, for whom the published advice is avoidance.
Rules exist governing sunbed use, including restrictions concerning young people. Those rules are national, they are revised, and what applies currently is published by the bodies that set them. This page does not restate them, for the same reason it states no thresholds anywhere else.
How is this different from phototherapy?
Comprehensively, despite the two involving cabinets that look alike.
Medical phototherapy selects a wavelength band rather than accepting whatever a lamp emits. It calculates a dose and adjusts it according to how an individual’s skin responds. It is arranged after an assessment of whether the treatment is appropriate at all, accounting for other conditions and for medicines that increase sensitivity to light. And it records cumulative exposure, carried forward across courses and sometimes across services, because a decision about further treatment depends on everything that came before.
A commercial sunbed provides none of that. There is no wavelength selection for a clinical purpose, no dose calculation, no assessment of suitability, no supervision and no cumulative record.
The resemblance between a phototherapy cabinet and a sunbed is one of the more unhelpful coincidences in dermatology, and it is worth naming plainly, because people occasionally reason from it that a sunbed is a version of treatment they can arrange themselves.
What if a skin condition is the reason?
Then the conversation belongs with a dermatologist.
Light-based treatment does have a place in dermatology, and it is arranged through a service that establishes whether it suits you, at what dose, over how many sessions, with what monitoring. That assessment is the treatment as much as the light is.
Someone who has found that sunlight seems to help a condition is describing something worth mentioning at an appointment, because it is clinically relevant information. It is not, on its own, a reason to arrange unsupervised exposure.
Where should you check the current position?
At the source, which is linked below and dated. The guidance is maintained, it is revised, and the version published by the health body is the one that means anything.
Anything written elsewhere, this page included, is a description of that position at the moment somebody happened to be reading it.
Common questions
Is a sunbed safer than sitting in the sun?
Published guidance is explicit that there is no evidence any type of sunbed is less harmful than natural sun exposure. The claim that one is a controlled alternative to the other does not survive contact with what health bodies actually publish, which is linked below.
Is a sunbed the same as medical phototherapy?
No, and the resemblance is superficial. Phototherapy uses selected wavelengths at a calculated dose, adjusted to your response, supervised clinically and recorded cumulatively across your lifetime. A sunbed does none of those things, which is the entire difference.
Does a base tan from a sunbed protect against burning later?
A tan represents melanin produced in response to ultraviolet exposure that has already occurred, so acquiring one means the exposure happened. Health bodies describe a tan as a sign of skin damage rather than as a protective measure taken in advance.
Are sunbeds regulated?
Their use is subject to rules in the United Kingdom, including restrictions concerning young people, and those rules are set nationally and revised. What applies currently is published by the relevant bodies rather than something to establish from a general article.
What if I use one for a skin condition?
That is a conversation for a dermatologist rather than a decision to make at a tanning shop. Where light-based treatment is appropriate, it is arranged through a service that assesses suitability, calculates dose and keeps a record, none of which a commercial sunbed provides.
Sources
- Sunbeds: safety advice — UK Health Security Agency (United Kingdom) · accessed
- Sunscreen and sun safety — NHS (United Kingdom) · accessed
Last updated . How this page was written.