As spring arrives, one is so easily lured to getting an early tan, in anticipation of strapless summer dresses!

The Scientific American’s Board of Editors published an analysis and opinion in the April 2015 issue of Scientific American, calling tanning beds “skin cancer factories”, and that people younger than 18 have the highest risk.

There are 14 000 tanning salons in the US alone, and besides the ease of a quick visit, it also becomes addictive as one relaxes, and feels good following a session on the tanning bed, due to the release of opioid endorphins while under the lamps.

Skin cells however, experience something quite different.  The radiation from indoor UV lamps are often more intense than the sun’s natural rays.  A session on a tanning bed is equivalent to lying in the midday sun in summer.  UV rays damage the DNA in skin cells, which increases the chances that these cells will become malignant.

In 2009 the World Health Organisation (WHO) re-classified tanning beds as “high level carcinogen” – their most dangerous designation, together with cigarettes and plutonium.  The Board of Editors go on to state that the number of skin cancer cases linked to tanning beds every year is twice the number of lung cancer cases linked to smoking!  In 2014 a systemic review and meta-analyses of 88 studies concluded that tanning beds lead to 10 000 new cases of the deadliest form of skin cancer, melanoma, each year in the US, Australia and Europe, and as many as 450 000 cases of other skin cancers.

The younger one is, the greater the risk in regular use of tanning beds as then there is more time for more UV damage to skin cells.  Persons under the age of 35, have a 60% greater risk of melanoma, with regular use of tanning beds, compared to those who start after this age.

Due to the inherent danger of tanning beds, they have now been banned totally in Brazil, and in most states of Australia from 2015.  No minor may be admitted to a tanning salon in 11 European countries, including UK, France, Germany and Spain.  In the US there are moves to not only carry warning labels on tanning devices, but to require parental consent for minors, time limits under lamps and mandatory eye protection; however, a national ban for all minors is still under discussion in the various states.

We need to sensitize young people, in particular, young women that tanning beds/lamps are a serious health hazard, and that frying under the lamps is a greater risk for cancer later in life, than smoking cigarettes!

HEALTH INSIGHT
MARCH 2017

 

 

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