Eye Pro, Inc.

By BRENDA FISHBAUGH

About the Author: Tanning industry veteran Brenda Fishbaugh is president of Eye Pro, Inc., makers of disposable eyewear. She travels extensively training salons on the effects of UV light on vision.

Mike DePuew, former owner of Beach ‘N Tans in Mocksville, NC,  owned tanning salons for over two decades and taught tanning certification classes in North Carolina.

“I spend a lot of time helping salons get ready for inspections.  They are always surprised what inspectors find important.  The Number #1 hot button is lamp compatibility. The salon must show they are within 10% of the lamp recommended for each bed.  You need to have this with your Bed Manuals.  It is Federal law and you can’t mess around with this.  Make sure your employees know where this manual is.

Our Number #2 hot button is eye protection.  You need to have a written sheet for how to clean eyewear.  You need to have quat strips to test your eyewear solution, if you are providing shared eye protection.  Your staff MUST ask for eyewear every time someone comes in.  We ask, ‘May I see your eye protection, please?”  If they don’t have them, we give them disposables and say, ‘Eye protection is your sunglasses for INSIDE.  You must wear them.’”

Mike explained that the 3rd hot button is certified and trained staff. “If you don’t have a certificate for each person working in your salon, the inspector can stop operations on the spot. Why would you not have one or two or three certifications in different fields for each staff member? They will do a better job for you if they know more.”

I was surprised that the 4th hot button was Client History.  Inspectors look at your system to make sure no one has tanned more than once in 24 hours and you are starting them out at a low amount and you have release forms on file.

The 5th critical piece is Signage.  You must post the federal sign in each room and your beds must be labeled appropriately.  You need to have eyewear information posted.

Another surprise was that inspectors often look for false claims.  “If you have signs or posters up that tanning gives you a base tan or prevents cancer or improves mood, your inspector may ask to have them removed.”

Would your salon pass if you were inspected today?

Want to see an inspector’s checklist and what the inspector uses to grade your salon?  Email me at Brenda@WinkEase.com and I’ll send them to you.

Always protect your vision when tanning!

WINK-EASE eyewear can be worn when tanning indoors or out!

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Article By BRENDA FISHBAUGH:

I thought you might enjoy reading about a common tanning mistake that can easily be corrected in your salon.

Dear Brenda:
I went into a tanning bed for the first time yesterday and used the gold eye stickers.  I did not put them on correctly and just stuck them like a sticker on my eye lid.  I was in the tanning bed for eight minutes.  My eyes were also shut the whole time.   Do you think I did any damage to my eyes?

Thanks for your help.
Rob

Hi Rob,
Thanks for your question, it’s a good one.  And I also appreciate you caring about your eye sight enough to write. Shame on the tanning salon you visited for not properly explaining how to use disposable eye protection!  I would seriously consider finding a different salon if your new salon is so indifferent to a new tanner that they did not take the time to properly ensure you were familiar with your eye protection.

The display box for every brand of disposable eye protection features a diagram that shows assembly, as well as a photo on the front of the box with a wearer properly wearing the product as an example.  You’ll also find directions on the back of every pair of disposable eye protection, regardless of manufacturer.  We also recommend that the salon fold the eyewear into a cone and place it on top of the display box, so that the user will see how to use the product properly.

Unfortunately, you tanned at a salon that did not take the time to explain how to use the product.  Luckily, disposable eye protection is a complete UV block, so wearing the product flat on your eye would have protected you reasonably well.   Disposables worn flat don’t block all of the ambient light that may come in the sides of your eyes.    The biggest concern is probably that you received a big, white “raccoon eye” effect, since the product covered more of your eye area than is necessary for vision protection while tanning.  Folding the product into a cone blocks ambient light from entering your eye and also allows you to see through it during your tanning session allowing you to adjust your stereo, fans and facial tanners, check the time remaining, all without removing your eye protection.

Of course, only an examination by an ophthalmologist can determine if you have damaged your eyes.  If you ever experience eye pain after a tanning session, even if you wore protection, please see your eye doctor.

Once again, thanks for valuing your vision enough to protect it while enjoying the comforts of indoor tanning!
Brenda

About the Author: Tanning industry veteran Brenda Fishbaugh is president of Eye Pro, Inc., makers of disposable eyewear. She travels extensively training salons on the effects of UV light on vision.

By Brenda Fishbaugh
About the Author: Tanning industry veteran Brenda Fishbaugh is president of Eye Pro, Inc., makers of disposable eyewear. She travels extensively training salons on the effects of UV light on vision.

To begin, please use proper hospital grade disinfectants made specifically for use on tanning beds! Anything else will cloud your acrylic and possibly harm your client’s skin.

First, make sure you mix the solution properly.  I can’t tell you how many salons I’ve been in that just “add more” to make it better!  It doesn’t make your solution better, it makes it strong enough to hurt tanners’ skin!  It’s critical you mix to the level your disinfectant to the specifications on the label.

Second, you must check your solution using a quat strip.  Quaternary strips are litmus paper rolls, similar to what you would use to test a swimming pool.  Tanning bed disinfectants require specific ratios based on their ingredients. For example, the leading bed disinfectant, Lucasol,  should be mixed at 700 PPM (parts per million).

Third, use a fresh towel to disinfect each bed.  Two tanning horror stories…I tanned at a client’s salon for the first time.  I followed them into the room and they used the towel that the previous tanner had left on the bed to disinfect my bed…ugh!!!!  What was on that towel and now rubbed all over my bed? Double ugh!  Second story…I was training a salon and they had a towel on the disinfectant bottle and used the same towel on every bed all day long.  Terrifying.  Tingle and sweat and lotion being smeared from one unit to the next.  Don’t do this or let your staff do this!

The next step is to spray and wait 60 seconds.  It takes this long to sanitize a tanning bed.  Don’t just spray and wipe!  Waiting 60 seconds sanitizes and kills 99.9% of fungus and germs.  So spray, empty the trash can, wipe the door handle and floor, and then wipe the bed with a fresh towel.  Your evening routine should be to spray and wait 10 minutes to disinfect.  This kills 100% of the viruses and other stuff you don’t want on your bed.  This needs to be done at least once a day.

Finally, your solution needs to be made up fresh daily and tested with a quat strip.  Don’t make up huge quantities and use for days.  The solution will lose its efficacy quickly.

All disinfectants are not made the same.  Check the labels thoroughly and make sure you are using the best product to provide a clean tanning surface for your tanners and taking the best care possible of your acrylics.

Protecting the health of your tanners is your responsibility, and keeping your tanning units properly sanitized and disinfected is a critical piece of you providing a clean and healthy tanning experience.

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By Brenda Fishbaugh
About the Author: Tanning industry veteran Brenda Fishbaugh is president of Eye Pro, Inc., makers of disposable eyewear. She travels extensively training salons on the effects of UV light on vision.

I often hear that a tanner will skip wearing eye protection because they forgot them or have an important event. Nothing will happen, right?  It’s kind of like not wearing your seatbelt one time.  It could be the time you get hit.

In a single tanning session, the greatest danger to your eyes is photokeratitis, or an eye burn.  It’s also called “welder’s flash” or “snow blindness.”  You’ll experience red, itchy watery eyes and many tanners describe the experience as extremely painful, as if they had sand in their eyes.  But its not sand in your eyes, that is your cornea peeling!  Photokeratitis is the most common reason a tanner seeks medical treatment after a single tanning session, as reported yearly by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

If you didn’t have tearing and painful eyes, then you probably did not burn your corneas.  Most other damage, such as night blindness, color vision loss and growths on the eye, are caused by repeated exposure to intense UV.  Remember, damage from indoor tanning and outdoor tanning accumulates over time, so please wear your FDA compliant disposable eye protection indoors and UV 400 block sunglasses outdoors.

Zoe’ Buchmuller-Killeen of Forever Sunshine Tanning in Little Ferry, NJ has a different approach.

“I think a picture is worth a thousand words. I show them the photos of possible eye damage from unprotected tanning that are printed on the educational handout provided by Wink-Ease. It works every time!”