The Nation - News from May 28, 1989

A 45-year-old woman who had taken medicine that made her skin more sensitive to light died from burns she received in a tanning booth, a published report said. Patsy Campbell of Portage, Ind., died last week at the University of Chicago Medical Center from complications caused by burns she suffered at a beauty salon’s tanning booth, said Christopher Morris, spokesman for the Cook County, Ill., medical examiner. Burns covered 70% of her body, he said, after Campbell had undergone a 25-minute tanning session May 13. The Chicago Sun-Times quoted unidentified sources as saying that she had been taking psoralen, which increases the skin’s sensitivity to light and is most often used in the treatment of psoriasis, a skin disease, the paper said. Dr. Alan Dimick, a University of Alabama burn expert, said he believes this was the first death caused by burns from a tanning booth.