Study finds tanning-bed poses high cancer risk

A health study putting tanning beds in a top cancer risk category has some salon owners upset. Researchers found the risk of skin cancer jumps 75-percent when people use the beds before turning 30.

Artificial tanning from UV exposure is known to cause cancer, make skin age and wrinkle faster, mutate DNA, and reduce the immune system, as well as other possible effects. These problems are believed to be worse from tanning in a tanning bed or sunbed than from the sun, due to the different intensity and spectrum of the artificial light.

Specifically the US Public Health Service states that UV radiation, including the use of sun lamps and sun beds are “known to be a human carcinogen [=cancer causing agent].” It further states that the risk of developing cancer in the years after exposure is greatest in people under 30 years old.

There is persuasive evidence that each of the three main types of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma, is caused by sun exposure. Women who visited a tanning parlor at least once a month were 55% more likely to later develop melanoma than women who didn’t artificially suntan.

Young women who used sun lamps for tanning while in their 20s had the largest increase in subsequent cancer risk – about 150% higher than similar women who did not use tanning beds.