When it comes to indoor tanning, we're wholeheartedly against it. (Best-case scenario: early signs of aging. Worst-case scenario: cancer.) And yet...people keep heading to tanning beds. While many states are considering making it illegal for anyone under 18 to tan, age isn't the only restriction. An Ohio woman found out the the hard way that you can, in some people's eyes, be too big to tan.
Kelly McGrevey purchased a $70 tanning package from Akron, Ohio's Aloha Tanning Salon, and was turned away the very next day when she arrived to use it. "Sorry, but I'm not going to let you tan today because we've just implemented a new policy where anyone over 230 pounds can't go in one of our beds," McGrevey recalls the salon's employee saying.
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Depending on the thickness of acrylic used, the average weight limit a traditional tanning bed can hold is around 250 pounds, with most commercial beds capable of holding 300-400 pounds. McGrevey was told that the traditional lay-down beds were off limits to their heavier customers. "It's discrimination," she says. The salon's weight limit isn't in writing, but is usually given verbally.
No matter what, the salon treated McGrevey unprofessionally. More than 63% of Americans are considered overweight and, according to SkinCancer.org, more than one million people will use an indoor tanning salon on any given day. That means that a sizable percentage of those million will be overweight. Along with warnings about the hazards of tanning (we should all be aware of them by now), a salon that has a weight limit on their tanning beds should have it posted in plain view so cases such as McGrevey's can be avoided. That exchange can't have been a comfortable experience for either party. (USA Today)
Image: Via USA Today.