Paper Four Article Summaries

For my research topic for paper four, I am choosing to write about the dangers of tanning beds and the effect they have on appearance in our society. The first article I found is titled “Frequent Tanning Bed Use, Weight Concerns, and Other Health Risk Behaviors in Adolescent Females.” I found this article especially useful because it not only talks about the health dangers associated with tanning beds, but examines why girls have such a strong desire to use the beds despite the dangers and how the media plays a role, particularly in America. An interesting quote I found that illustrates this idea further is “Frequent tanning bed use among adolescent females is associated with a range of health risk behaviors. This effect may be mediated by peer influence and a desire to look like other females in the media” (O’Riordan, Field, Geller, Brooks, Aweh, Colditz and Frasier, 679). This article also contains a variety of statistics about tanning bed use among adolescent girls, which will be extremely useful for appealing to logos in my research paper.

The second article I found is titled “Radiation. Tanning Trippers Get UV High.” This article is much different from the first article I found, but I found it very interesting. It talks about how tanning in a bed releases feel-good endorphins, causing those who regularly go tanning to become addicted to it like a drug. I think this information would be useful for my paper because it explains one reason why tanning appeals to so many people. This article even talks about how people who stop going tanning experience withdrawal symptoms similar to that of someone who is being weaned off of an opioid drug, just another reason why artificial tanning is dangerous. Like the first article, this article also contains good statistics that would be useful for appealing to logos in my research paper. A quote I found particularly useful in this article further explains the potential addiction artificial tanning is capable of. According to Burton, “Feldman’s team thought that blocking this potential endorphin rush might cause such people to lose some of their tanning enthusiasm; what they didn’t expect was for some to develop withdrawal symptoms” (Burton, A403). I found this extremely interesting, and I know this information will provide good support for my fourth paper.

Works Cited
O'Riordan, David L., Alison E. Field, Alan C. Geller, Daniel R. Brooks, Gideon Aweh,
Graham A. Colditz, and Lindsay A. Frazier. "Frequent Tanning Bed Use, Weight
Concerns, and Other Health Risk Behaviors in Adolescent Females (United
States)." Cancer Causes & Control 17.5 (Jun., 2006): 679-86. JSTOR. Web. 12
Apr. 2010. .

Burton, Adrian. "Radiation. Tanning Trippers Get UV High." Environmental Health
Perspectives 114.7 (Jul., 2006): A403. JSTOR. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.
.