The Current - Gen Z wants to bring tanning back

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

Most young people have heard the warnings about cancer and sun damage. Many of them are soaking up the sun anyway. Montreal dermatologist Dr. Ivan Litvinov says Gen Z may feel invincible, but they're not. So doctors need to find creative ways to get their message to land.

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From CBC's Uncover, the expert witness. available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. Well, it's June, and the sun is finally shining in most of the country. It's time to get out and enjoy it and put on that hat and slather on the high SPF, right? Well, maybe not if you're a Gen Z. It's a Gen Z, Gen Z.

I don't know. Everyone says, we'll say it will be Canadian, Gen Z. Some people are in their teens and 20s are seeking out the sun, chasing the high UV index to maximize their exposure, comparing tan lines with their friends. And a survey commissioned by the Canadian Dermatology Association indicates Gen Z is tanning, despite knowing the cancer risk. Current producer, Ann Penman, spoke to some teenage. at Kitsilano Beach in Vancouver, midday yesterday, where it was sunny in the low 20s.

I'm just looking to be more bronze, like a shade darker, not too much, though. And I just use tanning all. I don't really use sunscreen, which is bad. It's like getting a tan just makes me feel like I look better. The tan I'm hoping to get this summer is probably an all-around kind of brownish tan. I think it definitely ups my confidence because you're more confident when you think you look good. And I'm hoping to maybe go all of today. Some SPF sunscreen. I don't have 60, but 50 is good enough.

Yeah, like I feel like when I'm pale, like I just look kind of like depressed. And like, yeah, like the whole tan is like summer vibes and everything. So like when I'm darker, I just feel better. It feels more confident, I guess. And it makes me like have more colors since I'm like more pale. So are you worried about the risks? Um, yeah, low key, but. Um, gotta do what you gotta do, I guess, to look good.

I don't really burn that easily because I'm from Asia, so I'm not that worried, but I still want to put on sunscreen because my grandparents had melanoma from working before. So I, like, I'm a bit more aware of being under the sun. What do you say to people who are warning you all the time about don't tan, don't go out in the sun, all that? Like, it's great that they're warning me, but at the same time it's, like, my life. and I feel like I can just do what I want to do. Like I tell my mom, like, thank you for a concern, but it is my body, so I get to do what I want.

And my sister also tan gets a tan, so I mean, like, she's, like, not that much older than me, so I get to do what I want. Um, yeah, my grandma has, like, skin cancer, so she always, like, warns me about that type of stuff. She's, like, she always has, like, an umbrella when it's sunny out. Yeah, like, they'll be me maybe when I'm older, but right now, like, I'm okay. Dr. Ivan Lipmanoff is a dermatologist and an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal. Good morning, doctor. Good morning. Pleasure to be here.

Great having you here. What do you make of what you just heard? I mean, it was pretty clear the message that being tanned makes people feel better. Yeah, but our research team hears it all the time. I also hear it all the time from our patients. And clearly, these interviews were not recorded in Australia where people take. sun exposure and skin cancer risk much more seriously. This is a specifically Canadian experience. You're absolutely right. So how do we get Canadians to take this more seriously about the dangers

of sun exposure? Yeah, unfortunately, as you're showing, the message is not getting through. Melanoma Canada has just documented 17% increase in melanoma rate going from 2023 to 2024 in one year alone, which is quite an astounding increase. So, As you can see, the Canadian Dermatology Association under the leadership of Jacente Desanel, Mark Kirchoff, Meyer Sapiyashko produced this report. We are doing research, producing the reports. We're trying to investigate ways how Australia has succeeded in delivering the message to young adolescents. I think we can talk about skin cancer, but clearly what you're showing in your interviews is our young Canadians are more worried about appearance. So we should emphasize how unhealthy tan is, how people will look 10, 15 years older if they continue to expose themselves to the sun.

If we talk about wrinkles, blotches, I think we will get more traction with that population. You mentioned Australia. What is Australia doing differently? Yeah. So Australia has invested heavily in skin cancer prevention and sun protection campaigns. It's a multimodal campaign. They have backed it up with legislation. They have removed taxes from sunscreen. They have banned tending bags equipment. The messages are everywhere about skin cancer and sun protection.

In a similar way, how we have endorsed anti-tobacco campaign, right? But if you look at Canada, we have taxes on sunscreen, we have bronzage salons everywhere. we don't have any meaningful campaign or engagement nationally or provincially with the population on sun protection. Yeah, there is that message out there. It's like there's no safe cigarettes and there's no safe tanning. But at the same time, kids are being encouraged, you know, get outside.

Don't sit behind your computer screen all day. Go outside and enjoy and enjoy the sunshine. Enjoy the fresh air. So maybe there's a bit of a mixed message for kids who are hearing this. You know, this is my message as well. I want everybody in Canada to go outdoors. We should enjoy the outdoors. We should be active.

We just should do so without getting a tan or a skin burn, right? So we want to celebrate natural skin color. We don't want to be a tanner or paler than what we are. And in fact, this is what they do in Australia. They are very outdoorsy people. People are very active. It's just they sun protect. They use sun protective clothing.

They use sunscreen on sun-exposed skin. And they're always outdoors. And that's what I want people to do as well. The Canadian Dermatology Association recently put out a social media campaign to try to reach these younger Canadians. And it shows young actors sticking their hands in toasters, ironing their arms and pressing their face into a waffle iron. The tagline is, indoor tanning isn't pretty. It also reads, a tan looks good now, but the damage lasts. What do you make of that approach?

I think it's brilliant. I salute the leadership of our organization. I think there is a great shock value in that campaign, just correlating the behavior of sun exposure to some of the other behaviors that I think everybody would consider as being unreasonable. In fact, we do know that a single blistering burn will nearly doubles someone's risk of melanoma later in life. People who, especially women, who start using indoor taining before the age of 20, increase on top of that, their melanoma risk by about 50%.

So, you know, really to a dermatologist, it would be equivalent. You are just damaging your skin. And if you're doing indoor tanning, you are uniformly exposing more skin than, let's say, if you were in the sun, wearing some particular clothing. So we've documented that the mutations are going to be more prevalent on the larger body surface area. So we've got to, like with a smoking campaign, engage our population from different angles. Some will be shock value, sort of fearful messages. Other ones will be educational messages.

And the other ones perhaps could be fun, engaging type of messages, just like we've done with a smoke sensation campaign. You mentioned shock value. I read this quote from an American dermatologist, and you were talking about tanning beds. And she said, tanning beds are in the same cancer-causing category as asbestos and plutonium. And I heard that. when I said, okay, you got my attention now. But does there need to be, you know, a level of shock value, especially for for younger people who seem to be sloughing this off? I think so. I mean, clearly you are, you know, you just played interviews and this is what we see every day. So there's few things. Kids are, believe they're invincible, just like they're saying. You know, it's not going to

happen to me. And they don't realize that it's actually sun exposure in your 20s that's going to earn you all the cancers in the 60s. Right now, we're estimating that, what? One in five Canadians are going to get skin cancer, and most people who do get a cancer is going to get more than one. So this is really dangerous. Skin cancer, there's about three some million cases, new cases of skin cancer diagnosed in the United States alone. Skin cancer is more common than all other human malignancies combined, right? People don't realize that. So why do people tan?

Well, first of all, sun is addictive, and this is what we're hearing from those teenagers. It feels good. After a long Canadian winter, it feels good when you get out in the sun. When it hits skin, it damages your DNA. At the same time, Sun triggers release of endorphins. And we all can relate to that. So it's an important evolutionary programming in us to get us out of the cave so that we can make vitamin D and not die of rickets. Otherwise, of course, it would be safer in a cave from the predator. So that's number one. And the number two for adolescents and teenagers, it's documented that Sun regulates mating behavior in mammals, in animals, and it regulates. romantic passion in humans. So just think about with the sun, spring, you know, dogs in heat,

right? So that's when the mating behavior happens. The same thing for us. So the research actually shows that it's much more important for a female to be tanned, and not so much for the male, but for the female to be tanned in order for the relationship to occur, for their female to be more receptive. Maybe this is why when we look at the magazines, subconsciously, magazines always prefer to show those tanned models. So there are some very strong evolutionary drivers why people want a 10, but I keep saying, you know, we're talking about, well, how can I do it safely? How can I, you know, what if I put a sunscreen and then I get this tan or a burn? Well, it's just like looking for a safe cigarette. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist. And you're right. We can compare sun exposure to tobacco and

asbestos exposure. There's no safe exposure. I love this show because I learn something every time. and now I'm learning so much speaking with you about this and these evolutionary, evolutionary traits that are involved in this. But just a last word to you. Do you have a little hope here when you've heard those voices, the people? Do you think the message getting through? Right. I do have hope because right now people are worried about their beauty

and we can incorporate sun protection into skin-carrying routine. And also the research shows that we really should focus on the vulnerable age of our adolescents, really from about 14 to 18. We're documenting that this is the age where sand protection practices drop, right? When they come out of the parental control, they're invincible, they're hunting those tanning lines. And then unfortunately, at 18, 19, the tanning bad exposure picks up. So this, I'm hopeful that now that we know what to do, we can interview. in the appropriate age, change some of those trends behavior, focus on aging gracefully.

And like I said, I do want people to get out. Please, everybody, get out, enjoy. But do so, you know, without getting a burn or a tan, celebrate natural skin color, put some protective clothing everywhere. And then the areas that are not covered by clothing, put sunscreen. Message delivered. Dr. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Dr. Ivan Lipmanoff is a dermatologist and associate professor at McGill University. We've reached him today in Montreal. This has been the current podcast.

You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30 a.m. at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.com. c.com slash podcasts.