Investigators posing as fair-skinned teenage girls contacted 300 tanning salons nationwide, including at least three randomly selected in each state. The investigators report that 90% of the salons stated that indoor tanning did not pose a health risk and over half (51%) of the salons denied that indoor tanning would increase a fair-skinned teenager’s risk of developing skin cancer. Going even further, 78% of the tanning salons even claimed that indoor tanning is beneficial to health. (In fact, many studies have shown that tanning is dangerous, especially for teenagers, and that tanning raises the risk of melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, by 74%.)
(a) What is the sample?
(b) Do you think the sample is representative of all tanning salons in the US?
(c) Although the sample is random, discuss why the results do not paint an accurate picture of the dangers of tanning.
(d) Do you think the study accurately portrays the messages tanning salons give to teenage girls?