tanning beds are high-intensity light - not the same as 5 mins outdoors...

http://www.salonsinboston.com/articl...afety-tips.htm
http://www.aeinstitute.net/institute...r/dangers.html

I've been in a lab where they test sunscreens. They had lamps that emitted the same UV exposure in 5 minutes that you would get if you sat in the sun for 3 hours without wearing sunscreen.

My skin starts to burn in 10-15 minutes in moderate sun, and I am not considered to have the most sensitive skin...If I went in the sun for 3 hours

Oh yeah, and we also had a test subject come in who was keen on tanning - and when we tested his sensitivity to UV, he had extremely high sensitivity to UV light - it was like the tan was just painted over the top - the brown colour was preventing him from seeing how red he was underneath....

Darker people seem to burn more slowly than lighter-skinned people, but it's not the colour of their skin, it's some other factor...you can have dark-skinned people who burn easily, and fair skinned people who don't burn so easily... that's what we 'discovered' in our lab work...

Tanning more won't make you burn any less either...