If Sarah Palin owns & uses a tanning bed, SHAME ON HER, no matter who paid for it!

[beachmom]

Hi. My name is Beachmom, and I am a Melanoma survivor. I just got back from my Dermatologist this week, and was asked if I ever use a tanning bed. I said, NO! I was told that even people without fair skin like me put themselves at risk for skin cancer if they use a tanning bed. In short, using tanning beds is risky behavior, and I am unsure why they are still legal. But at the least of it, I expect political candidates on the presidential ticket to be a role model, and not engage in risky behavior like using a tanning bed for purely vain reasons of looking good on TV. It is just so wrong!

If Sarah Palin would like to have a tan, she should go to a salon where she can be given self tanning lotion. This is safe, and since it's done in a salon, it will look good.

Frankly, it is an insult to every skin cancer survivor that she owns a tanning bed. And to the taxpayers in Alaska as well, if indeed they paid for it.

UPDATE: Two more points. John McCain has had Melanoma FOUR TIMES so if you asked him, he would have to admit the dangers of tanning beds, if he was being honest about it (hmmm... honesty hasn't been his strong point lately so maybe scratch that) AND fine, thou Libertarians, I am not on a crusade to make them illegal, but only idiots would lay in a tanning bed if they were given the proper information of how it increases skin cancer (and, to be clear I have idiot family members and idiot friends who refuse to heed my warnings on their danger).

[Freddie Stubbs]

1. Is Obama's cigarette smoking an insult to every lung cancer survivor?

:shrug:

[beachmom]

4. He quit smoking. And if he ever has fallen off the wagon, it's

due to the addiction to nicotine. But it's a piece of cake to give up tanning!! Just GET RID OF THE TANNING BED, and if you want a tan have self tanning lotion.

Also, WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE think there is nothing wrong with tanning beds. In fact, they think it is healthy. Most people acknowledge that smoking causes cancer. I get into fights with all kinds of people who look at me like I'm some kind of prude when I explain that tanning beds are not healthy and can cause skin cancer. So the AWARENESS of the dangers of tanning beds is very, very low. Now we have a VP candidate who is using them, so I guess that means it's okay? Obama ALWAYS said it was bad that he smoked.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. OMG!!! We nominated somone who is addicted to a drug!

Seriously, if we focus on the silly stuff like this we are going to get a lot less traction then concentrating on real issues.

[beachmom]

14. Um, I am making a point on Democratic Underground which you

can ignore -- hundreds of posts are thrown up, the majority of which are up for a couple of hours before sinking into oblivion. I am making, in fact, a non-political point about a politcian. That she is engaging in behavior akin to smoking as it relates to skin cancer (which is less deadly than lung cancer, to be clear), and maybe somebody here will read it, and decide to research the matter further ... and decide not to use a tanning bed anymore. If so, mission accomplished.

I will not be mentioning this on phone calls for the Obama campaign or when I talk with voters. And if you think my little post here will have ANY effect on the election, you need to get out more.

[book_worm]

7. luckily he realized he needed to quit, and that smoking is not only dangerous to his health but

to others around him.

[NYC_SKP]

2. "Malibu Caribou Barbie"...

Best wishes, beachmom, as a survivor of melanoma.

Sarah is right out of the sixties....I'm just flabbergasted.

[beac]

13. "Malibu Caribou Barbie"---- LOL!

:rofl:

[FrenchieCat]

3. Obama doesn't need a tanning bed.

Ms. Palin must be sooo jellOus........ :rofl:

[samuraiguppy]

5. they want to be the

melanoma ticket.:shrug:

[olkaz]

6. legality? seriously?

You think we should make the sun illegal too?

Jesus christ, talk about manufactured outrage.

[beachmom]

11. Wow, another idiot who doesn't know ANYTHING about the dangers

of tanning beds. Look, I doubt it will ever be made illegal, but it is a proven risk for skin cancer. People DIE from skin cancer you know.

Looks like yours and another poster proves my point. Nobody has a clue at how dangerous skin cancer can be and the fact that tanning beds contribute to the increased rates of skin cancer.

Tanning beds are way worse than the sun, because too many people think they're "healthy". That if they get a "base tan", that will protect them from sunburns, and therefore skin cancer, when under the real sun. Nothing could be further from the truth. The tanning bed itself increases the rate of skin cancer.

[1corona4u]

25. I'm sure you mean well, but you sound like a former smoker...

all they do after they stop is harp on everyone else to quit. Given that you live in VA beach, I'd bet you saw plenty of sun in your day. Skin cancer, like any other form of cancer, usually means the person was predisposed to it. I've been in the sun all my life, and at 51, I have never had any skin cancer. And I have been burned beyond recognition at times. So it depends on the person. Look at Dana Reeves. Died of lung cancer, and never smoked a day in her life.

Having said all of that, it's nice that you care enough to mention it, but you should make sure it doesn't come across like a christian trying to convert a sinner.

[hedgehog]

28. Umm, at age 51, you've never had any skin cancer.....

yet.

[1corona4u]

30. LIke I said, I don't, and won't.

But thanks for the concern.

[Genevieve]

8. I've had skin cancer. . .

but this is a non-issue.

[Lorien]

9. Meh, I don't care if her vanity kills her

my father is battling skin cancer too. He lost his right ear to it last year. Screw Palin; let her bake herself. When her nose is cut off from the cancer at least the media will stop gushing over what a "babe" she is.

[1corona4u]

10. You know, I hate to say it, and I DO hate that woman...

but this whole tanning bed thing is just...stupid. Really, it is. There are a LOT bigger issues we should be slamming her on.

[JI7]

33. i think it matters that Tax Payers at to pay for that shit

especially when they attack Obama for being elitist and they themselves are something they are not.

fuck them all.

[jberryhill]

15. There are 3.5 hours of dim daylight in Anchorage in winter

Vitamin D deficiency is actually a higher risk at that latitude than melanoma.

Even in summer, UV at that latitude is strongly attenuated.

John McCain lives in ARIZONA, which is quite different from ALASKA in terms of solar UV attenuation.

That said, if she wants to buy herself a microwave oven, crawl into it, and set it on "TV Dinner", that's her problem.

[beachmom]

18. Then get a major dose of Vitamin D, just like I do.

I'm in Hotlanta, but since I always wear sunscreen I have deficient Vitamin D. Again, the answers I am getting to this post are quite depressing. It is pretty clear to me now that a majority of the populace don't understand the dangers of tanning beds.

I wonder how many days McCain is in Arizona baking in the sun. Probably not many. Between travel and doing his job, I doubt a lot.

[jberryhill]

22. I feel pretty much the same way about motorcycles

But apparently she bought the thing herself and the things are legal.

I wouldn't buy a tanning bed or a motorcycle, but nobody put me in charge of what people buy.

[JuniperLea]

16. Cigarettes are still legal too...

I'm not sure why.

There is a tanning salon near the grocery store where I shop... all sorts of beautiful women going in there all the time. No surprise that Caribou Barbie is stupid enough to do this to herself. No surprise she'd have her constituents pay for it either. I'm so sick of this idiot. It's completely unacceptable for someone in a position to influence young women to do this. Inexcusable.

[IamyourTVandIownyou]

17. You can put a Pit Bull in a tanning bed, and its still a Pit Bull.

.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

19. That's the LEAST of the worries about that ticket.....

I do see the irony, however.

[chatnoir]

20. I think you'd have to be incredibly stupid/ignorant to use one of those things.

They're definitely incredibly harmful to your health/skin and studies for years have shown they are more damaging than actual sunlight. If you want a fake tan go for the fake-bake lotions or spray-ons-- there's a zillion of them on the market. That's what anyone with any common sense or a semblance of an IQ does nowadays anyways.

The fact she has one speaks to her vanity, ignorance and poor judgment.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. Let's hope she uses it more often.

And let McCain take a few hours in the thing.

:shrug:

[backscatter712]

29. One ticket for me please...

for the short bus to Hell.

I laughed. :rofl:

[Phredicles]

23. As you wish. But I still want to know who paid for it.

Bribe? Embezzlement? Fraud? I still don't see how a family of seven can afford such a thing.

[Genevieve]

26. They have plenty of money.

Alaska Gov. Salary = $125000, Husband reported made $100000.
And this is not even including all their perks and write-offs, expense accts, whatever else.

[anakie]

24. the tanning bed issue is very big in Australia

especially through the efforts of a young lady called Clare Oliver; who contracted and died from melanomas she developed through her use of tanning beds. To those who can't draw a distinction and think they are harmless, do so at their own peril.

Her site

http://www.clareolivermelanomafund.org/HTMLPages/clareolivermelanomafund.htm


Peace

[backscatter712]

27. It's Melanoma Barbie!!!

Put her in warm water and watch the tumors appear!

/me adds to the list of toys that will never be made...

[jberryhill]

31. "using tanning beds is risky behavior"

Even with a condom?

Waaaaiiit... using a tanning bed for what, exactly?

[TooRaLoo]

32. I sometimes tan to help clear my psoriasis.

And sometimes I break down and have a cigarette, too. I don't think I'm a horrible example of a person.

[lildreamer316]

34. This is just crazy.

Legality?

Since when should the government, or you,or anyone else, have the right to tell me WHAT I CAN DO WITH MY OWN BODY.

Smacks of those ppl who want to ban abortion.

[donheld]

35. Of all the things wrong with the Palin Wailin

The tanning bed is one of the LEAST of our worries. Honey we have a fucked economy for a humongous start. Forget Sarah's tanning bed!

[ContinentalOp]

36. Eh, big deal. She's going to be raptured anyway right? Why worry about tomorrow? -nt-

[snowbear]

37. If God forbid they win, she'll take that tanning bed to the whitehouse and...

She'll get McIdiot drunk out of his mind and when he passes out, she'll have her big dude "Todd" carry him into the taining bed.

They'll crank it on high and burn his melanoma cheek all to hell.

She's an evil lady who hungers for complete and total power.

McSame will be sorry he linked up with her..