Artificial tans just aren’t worth it. There is almost no question at this point. A new study found further evidence that tanning beds are dangerous—in this case, leading to the most common skin cancers around.
Researchers found that tanning beds can cause non-melanoma skin cancer, and the risk is greater the younger one starts tanning. This comes on the heels of health news showing that indoor tanning ups your risk for malignant melanoma, the most fatal form of skin cancer. This latest piece of the puzzle is about non-melanoma skin cancers, the most common forms of skin cancer.
This is the most extensive examination of published findings on the subject. It found that indoor tanning causes over 170,000 new cases of non-melanoma skin cancer in the U.S. every year.
RECOMMENDED: A berry for skin cancer protection.
It bears mentioning that younger people (under 25) have a huge risk of developing basal cell carcinomas compared to those who never use the popular tanning booths. So, please get the word out.
Talk about cancer prevention: just don’t go to a tanning salon. This “meta-analysis” reviewed articles published since 1985, comprising about 80,000 people in six countries. Tanning beds became popular in the 1970s, and in 2010, still about 5.6% of the American public use them each year. There are about 19,000 across the country.
The World Health Organization has said that ultraviolet tanning devices cause cancer in people, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer considers indoor tanning a “Class 1” carcinogen. Government officials in the U.S. and abroad are increasingly restricting and regulating tanning facilities.
The new study adds to the mounting evidence on the dangers of indoor tanning, showing significant elevated risk of the most common forms of skin cancer.
There’s more. Those who hit tanning salons had a 67% higher risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma and a 29% higher risk of developing basal cell carcinoma. There are public health agencies around the globe that are banning tanning beds for people of certain ages, and restricting them for others. There is a certifiable reason for that.
Just like smoking cigarettes, tanning beds create a cancer-causing environment. Is having tanned skin (which is more prone to wrinkles, by the way) really worth the risk of cancer?
Sources for Today’s Articles:
Read This News if You Love Tanning Beds
“Study confirms link between indoor tanning and skin cancer risk,” BMJ October 2, 2012.