Sun beds and all types of ultraviolet rays are now ranked in the highest risk group by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, putting them in the same group as plutonium and radium, researchers said in a paper published today in the medical journal Lancet Oncology.
Sun beds and UV rays are now considered “carcinogenic to humans.” Using a tanning bed raised the risk of developing the type of skin cancer called melanoma by 75 percent in users that started tanning before the age of 30, researchers led by Fatiha El Ghissassi of Lyon, France-based IARC said in the study.
“Some people feel the need to tan to compete. My advice to them is: don’t do it with a sun bed, don’t even go get the tan outside,” Vincent Cogliano, the head of the IARC Monographs program, a World Health Organization unit, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Melanoma originates in a type of skin cells called melanocytes that make skin tan or brown and protect the deeper layer from the sun, according to the American Cancer Society’s Web site. In 2009, the ACS estimates that 68,720 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed and 8,650 patients will die from it.
The researchers also said UV-A rays are now deemed certain to cause skin cancer. UV-B rays had already been classified in the most dangerous category.
The radiation and the beds were reclassified to reflect new scientific evidence, Cogliano said. Tanning beds were previously classified as “probably carcinogenic.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Eva von Schaper in Munich at evonschaper@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 28, 2009 19:01 EDT
3 comments:
It is a puzzle to me that people still use those things, with all the info out about the dangers.
What I want to see is a study showing hot tubs cook us. :) Not that I have easy access to one, but I wonder if it would change my adoration of them. :)
I'm so bad. I LOVE THEM! I haven't been in several years... but I was a definite regular for a long time. At what is sad, is I KNOW THE DANGERS!! For crying out loud, I work in the health care industry...my son has had 3 pre-melanoma's removed and yet, I crave getting into one..... I'm a sick, sick chick!
Wendy--I love hot tubs! That is one thing about being pregnant that has been hard for me...no hot tubs. It raises your core temperature which is harmful to babies. Sucks because some days I sure could use one! But I'll suck it up. :]
M-Cat--I know what you mean. My Dad actually had a melanoma tumor removed 9 years before he died and I kept going to the tanning bed. That's when he dived into researching it and sent my siblings and I a ton of articles on the dangers of tanning beds and melanoma. One of those finally sunk in (I can be a little thick headed) and I stopped tanning. I miss the days of being tan but I miss my Dad more. So it keeps me away. It's just like a belief in anything, we have to find out for ourselves that it is important.
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