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Tan fans who plump for the UV-free method of achieving a healthy glow may still be putting their health at risk in the quest for a sunkissed look.

Scientists have voiced concerns that chemicals found in spray tans can be breathed in and absorbed into the blood stream causing DNA changes and possibly cancer, reports the Daily Mail.

The main ingredient in spray tans is dihydroxyacetone (DHA), which is easy to unwittingly inhale, especially in tanning booths that use fine sprays to apply the product. The chemical has been linked to worsening asthma and other lung problems such as emphysema.

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Lab tests have also suggested DHA has the potential to cause mutations in cells, which can lead to cancer.

“What we’re concerned about is not so much that reaction that creates the tanning, but reactions that may occur deeper down with living cells that might then change DNA, causing a mutation and what the possible impacts of that might be,” explained Dr Lynn Goldman, from the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University . “I’d be very concerned for the potential of lung cancer.”

DHA was first approved in tanning treatments in the 1970s but no wide-scale tests of the safety of the chemical have been undertaking in relation to tanning booths. At-home self-tan treatments are safer as they treat the outer layer of cells only and are less likely to be inhaled.

In light of this news, perhaps it’s time ‘pale and interesting’ came back into fashion.

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