Dark side of a ‘healthy’ glow
“They are very big in the Travelling community and I know they’re big in the settled community as well,” says Rebecca, 20, from Cork City.
“I think it’s because they are a faster tan. You inject yourself and it’s out within three days.”
“Spray tans wash off the next day whereas the tanning injections can last for six months,” says Rebecca, who works with the Traveller Visibility Group.
Over the last 12 months, young women and men have been turning to banned melanotan injections, known as “tanning injections” or “tan jabs”, in their quest for a darker, longer-lasting tan.
While melanotan is illegal on the Irish market, consumers are ordering it online and having it delivered straight to their doors.
Go online and you can choose from a long list of websites selling the product with promises of a natural, effortless tan.
Pauline O’Grady-Noonan of TVG said the big concern is that the tan injections are unregulated.
“Nobody know what the long-term health effects of these injections are,” says Ms O’Grady-Noonan.
“It’s not just a problem in the Travelling community. There is widespread use of these injections.”
Melanotan is an unlicensed synthetic hormone that encourages the production of melanin, the pigment which turns the skin brown when exposed to sunlight.
It is marketed on the internet as an injection that claims to assist tanning. Consumers can order the product online and receive a kit in the post containing a powder, bacteriostatic water, and needles.
They mix the powder with the water and inject themselves into fatty tissue such as the abdomen or the leg for a period of time, from 10 to up to 20 days in some cases. In some instances the product comes premixed.
One course costs somewhere between €35 and €50. Users generally also use a sun bed.
“The sunbed makes it doubly dangerous,” says Ms O’Grady-Noonan. “It’s a double whammy for your skin.”
“We have heard reports of side-effects from the injections which include an all-over body swelling, a green tinge to the skin around the forehead, sensitive skin, feeling tired, indigestion.
Other who have used them report developing darker coloured freckles and black blotches on their lips.
“But not everybody gets a reaction,” says Ms O’Grady-Noonan. “Some just sail through and that’s a big challenge for us. We’re also concerned girls could be sharing needles.”
TVG believes girls as young as 16 are using the injections. It held an information night on Tuesday to raise awareness of the potential health risks.
Tanning injections hit the headlines in the UK a number of weeks ago after it emerged that a woman, who collapsed in a tanning salon and died, had used banned tanning injections weeks earlier.
It is believed Jenna Vickers, aged 26, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, had purchased a kit containing melanotan online.
An inquest will be held to determine the cause of her death.
The reality is that because tanning injections are unlicensed and have never been tested for medical use, there is no way for consumers to know what is actually in the product, or how much of it.
A disclaimer on one website that sells Melanotan II, among other products, says the materials for sale “are not for use as food additives, drugs, cosmetic, household chemicals, or other inappropriate applications”.
“Buyer acknowledges that the products have not been tested by supplier for safety and efficacy in food, drug, and medical device, cosmetic, commercial or any other use,” the disclaimer continues.
The Irish Medicines Board, which regulates medicines here, issued a precautionary safety alert in relation to melanotan (I and II) during the week, warning that it posed a risk to health and advising consumers to stop using it immediately.
“There is no evidence that it is safe or effective,” says a spokesperson for the IMB. “The IMB has previously warned of the risk of side-effects, ranging from nausea to headaches and other unknown outcomes,” says the IMB.
John Ball, spokesman for the Irish College of General Practitioners, says the ICGP would be warning patients against buying any medicine over the internet.
Responding to reports that the injections had caused moles and freckles to become darker, Dr Ball said tanners should not do anything to interfere with the melanin layer of the skin.
“Melanoma is where the melanin or pigment layer gets out of control, and darker moles and freckles are what the Irish Cancer Society tell people to look out for regarding cancerous changes,” says Dr Ball. “So at the very minimum it’s complicating looking at that.
“At a very minimum, it’s going to make a diagnosis more difficult.
“Anything that’s going to have any transmission risk of infection or that’s unlicensed is not good news for the patient.”
Jacqueline (not her real name) bought tanning injections on the internet to have a colour for her wedding.
“A few of my friends were after doing them and they were after getting a good colour and I had three months to go for my wedding,” said the 18-year-old.
“I only did one packet… seven injections altogether. It lasted up to two or three months.”
She took one injection every day for seven days, along with a sunbed session, and said that they cost €50 on the internet.
Jacqueline initially said she had no side effects, but later remembers she had black botches on her lips and that her birthmark went very dark.
“There were a few side effects but I don’t think people paid any heed to them. Freckles turning dark… like black… Black blotches on your lips. A few people had white patches.”
Jacqueline knows a lot of girls that were taking them four or five months ago, but said she did not know “anyone that is taking them now”.
She said she would not use the injections again.
“We are after hearing a lot more about them now then we did then. There was nothing about them when we started taking them. ”
“It’s after scaring all of us off,” she said.
Patricia (not her real name) used the injections to get a dark tan because she finds it difficult to get a tan using sunbeds.
“I wanted to try them out. I heard they were very good. I took them twice. I got no side effects.”
The 20-year-old bought a kit of 10 injections on the internet for €50 on two separate occasions, with a break of seven months in between. She used one injection each day for the 10-day period.
“The second time I took them, after taking the first injection I felt sick. You are meant to leave the jar inside the fridge for over an hour before using them, but I never did and I felt sick. But after that I felt fine after using them.”
Patricia said a few of her friends have also used them because they want to be brown.
She said most people who use them either find it difficult to get a tan when using sunbeds or want to be “brown fast for an occasion”.
“The injections are meant to stay in your system for six months. The tan lasts for about two months.”
Patricia admitted she was impressed with the deep colour, but that she wouldn’t use them again. “Now it’s getting more frightening because now we’re hearing more about them, whereas at the time you didn’t hear much about them.
“When we took them it was more about you’d get a good colour in a short time. We obviously knew there could have been side-effects, but we didn’t listen. Now we’re hearing too much about what they can do.”
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