The Bed is Dead is a social media-based campaign focused on raising awareness among teenagers about the link between indoor tanning and the appearance of skin cancers.
The campaign, which began last year, is focused on educating high school students on the dangers of tanning beds.
Lyndsey Degenhardt, Dermatology Physician Assistant, says in 2009 the World Health Organization classified indoor tanning beds as a class 1 carcinogen which is the same ranking as tobacco.
"We were able to finally prove that tobacco is directly linked to causing lung cancer and that tanning beds have been directly linked to causing skin cancer. And it increases our risk of all three forms of skin cancer but the most dangerous form is malignant melanoma. And there is a very high association between the tanning bed and malignant melanoma.”
During the Bed is Dead Campaign, students ages 13-18 are encouraged to take a pledge not to use tanning beds. After they take the pledge, girls are invited to post a selfie stating why they choose not to tan indoors with the hashtag #thebedisdead.