Tanning Bed - History

History

Although tanning beds were initially brought to America by Friedrich Wolff in 1979 he soon patented his particular blend of phosphors (since expired) and began licensing the technology to other companies. Some of the early adopters of the Wolff technology include ETS, Inc., SCA, Sun Industries, Inc., Montego Bay, Sunal. Friedrich Wolff sold Wolff Systems to his brother Jorg, the founder of Cosmedico Limited, another pioneer in the tanning industry.

From their US introduction in 1979, sunbeds have been regulated by the Food and Drug Administration's 21CFR 1040.20. This was amended in 1986 to include lamp compliance, warning labels and eye protection. This law was designed primarily to ensure that all sunbeds sold or used in salons adhered to a general set of safety rules, with the primary focus on sunbed and lamp manufacturers in regards to maximum exposure times and product equivalence. In addition, states have the opportunity to offer regulations for salons themselves, regarding the operator training, the sanitization of the sunbed and eyewear, and additional warning signs. For a comprehensive list of states with indoor tanning restrictions for minors and their specific laws, visit the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Several companies continue to license the Wolff name and use their lamps because of the name recognition, although this has steadily diminished over the years as other lamp builders have created lamps that are arguably as good as or better than Wolffs'.

Most modern tanning beds have not changed much from the original systems. The lamp technology and electronics have evolved over the years, but the basic "low pressure" tanning bed has not evolved. The original ballast systems used in the first tanning beds, both "European choke" and magnetic, are still in use today although there are now many other choices including electronic and high frequency. The lamps are still fluorescent type, using special phosphors that create a spectrum in the UVA and UVB range. Mostly emitting UVA rays. although there has been a great deal of advancement over the years to make the light spectrum they emit more "sun-like".

The original tanning lamps were discovered by accident in 1903 by a German company called Heraeus who were developing lighting systems for the home and for industrial usage. These lamps were of the high-pressure metal halide variety. They discovered that the light that was developed for visible light purposes also emitted ultra-violet light. In the 1920s and 1930s Heraeus first started to market and sell single lamp, self standing tanning/wellness devices. The first high-pressure tanning beds incorporating more than a single high-pressure lamp were manufactured in the mid to late seventies by companies such as Ultrabronz and JK Ergoline and in the 1980s the first high-pressure units were exported to the United States.

These units require special filter glass to remove the UVC and the majority of the UVB that is emitted and are difficult to manufacture because the alignment of the lamps is more critical than in traditional low-pressure tanning beds. They are generally large units, with a padded area to lie on or an acrylic and 6 to 36 lamps in a canopy or canopy and bench configuration, the tanning effect is much deeper and requires only a maintenance exposure of about 2-3 times per month compared to every 48 hours for regular tanning beds. They are much more expensive to operate, thus more expensive for the user. Retail prices in the $20,000 to $35,000 range are common with individual sessions costing $20 to $45, depending on the market.