Ask Wolff


I need to know the UVB and UVA percentages for insurance purposes. Also, the UL listing for the lamps.

We get this call all the time. For starters, fluorescent lamps, whether for tanning or any other use, do not have a UL (Underwriter’s Laboratories) listing. None is required, and UL has no category for fluorescent lamps.

There is a tendency in the insurance business (as it relates to the indoor tanning industry) that the decision to grant or deny coverage to salon owners may be based on irrelevant considerations. The amount of UVB emitted by a given indoor tanning lamp is a very inappropriate basis for evaluating coverage for a particular tanning salon because the issue is much more complex.


The spectral output of lamps does not in and of itself constitute the standard by which a given indoor tanning unit should be judged. All sunlamps are different, but each one can perform only as well as the equipment in which it is installed. Factors such as the transmission of the acrylic sheet, the type of ballast, the distance of the lamp in relation to the tanner, the degree of reflectivity of the reflector system and voltage supplied to the equipment all play a role in the amount of output emitted by sunlamps and its influence on the human body. Thus, to say that a tanning lamp is either “good” or “bad” because it emits a certain spectrum of light is a very inaccurate and misleading way in which to judge its merits.

What is important in considering responsible tanning practices is the exposure schedule. Any indoor tanning unit manufactured after September 1986 must have imprinted on it the appropriate exposure schedule for certain skin types. The manufacturer of a given unit must designate the lamp type to be installed in it. The unit’s total UV output must then be measured by an independent laboratory, where its exposure schedule can then be determined according to the guidelines supplied by the Food and Drug Administration. This total output cannot exceed 4 MED’s (minimal erythemal dose). These test results are then forwarded to the FDA where they are kept on file. The FDA, which regulates the indoor tanning industry, is not necessarily concerned with only the amounts of UVA and UVB emitted by a tanning lamp. They are concerned with the length of time that a person spends exposed to ultraviolet light.

Maybe insurance companies should be more concerned with factors such as whether or not the salon: operates FDA-complaint equipment, adequately trains its employees with an accredited training program, provides FDA-compliant protective eyewear, requires clients to sign risk acknowledgment cards, uses the original lamp that came with the equipment or an FDA compatible replacement lamp, maintains cleanliness standards throughout the salon, runs its business in a professional manner. Until then, we’ll have to continue with the “percentages” criteria for determining coverage.