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Tanning Beds: Luxury or Lucifer? |  |
 tb-lol.cjb.net |
| Report by Michael Manos This page consists of a Chemistry report I had to perform. It is Copyrighted (c)2002 Michael Manos, and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever. |
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| Tanning beds, a craze of teenagers in the United States, help them get tan by giving them healthy light, raising their melanin levels and giving them darker skin. Or so they think. Yes, they get "healthy"-looking skin, but they also can eventually die from this because of the lights. Fluorescent lights and tanning bed lights are very similar, but one is harmless while the other can become deadly. Lights glow due to the exciting of electrons. When the light is plugged in and turned on, the heat energy of the electricity is absorbed by the electrons of these mercury atoms, exciting them. Because they have so much energy, they fly out of their orbitals and into orbitals farther away from the nucleus. Being farther away from the nucleus means that they are much less stable; therefore, the electrons want to go back to their original state. In order for these mercury atoms' electrons to return to this form, they must release their energy. They do this in the form of light, or quantum, energy. Releasing of this energy lets the electrons return to their original orbitals and to a more stable location. All of this happens instantaneously and continuously. Fluorescent lights have the element mercury (Hg) in them. The emission of mercury forms ultraviolet light, which is rather harmful to humans. To prevent fluorescent lights from eventually killing us, manufacturers put a phosphor (P) base, in the form of a powder, inside the light, covering the inside. When the electrons emit their energy, in the form of UV light, the phosphor absorbs some of the light, and fluoresces, or glows. This light that the phosphor emits is visible light, which has a slower wavelength speed of ultraviolet light. This is why the fluorescent lights don't give us skin cancer. The tanning bed is interesting because they use the exact same formula as the fluorescent lights, with one significant difference: there is no phosphor coating. With no coating to absorb some light, the light emitted from these tanning bed lights are ultraviolet. Ultraviolet light eventually causes skin cancer. So, whenever you step into a tanning bed or booth to become golden brown, you also raise your chances of getting cancer, and possibly dying. All this for a mere cost of a few dollars. This shows that the lights inside tanning beds are not fluorescent, but fatal. Ultraviolet rays from the electrons of mercury can give cancer. This doesn't make artificial tanning look so great, does it? |
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