LIVE
VIDEO
Yes We Tan!
Huh? West Virginia leads LA in Indoor Tanning
Friday, Feb 27, 2009 | Updated 3:54 PM PDT
Getty Images
East Coast cities have more tanning salons per capita than LA, but we still have plenty.
LOS ANGELES -- Finally some evidence that Angelenos may not be as vapid and self absorbed as the nation would like to think.
A new study shows a lot more indoor tanning salons per capita in places like New York, or even Charleston, West Virginia, than in Los Angeles.
Not that we don't have a bunch.
The study from the University of California in San Diego shows 128 tanning salons in L.A. County. That's about 3.5 for every 100,000 people.
In Charleston, that number is nearly double, about 7.5 for every 100,000 people.
That could be surprising on some levels, like who knew there were 100,000 people in Charleston? It might be less surprising if you consider weather. We have a lot more warm sunny days where exposing your skin to potential cancer can be done old fashioned, outdoor way.
But a closer look at the numbers shows we still have a certain fascination with indoor tanning. Those 128 tanning salons outnumber a few of our other interests. For instance, we only have 90 McDonalds in the county, and only 78 Starbucks.
Now another question might be why would UCSD bother to study such an arcane statistic. Could be an overflow of federal grant money, but the university says it wanted to see why teen tanning, and associated melanoma, appeared up. The conclusion: the more salons around them, the more likely teens are to use them.
For more on the study, click here.
New Aquarium Gallery: Wonders of the Deep
