World Health Organization: Tanning Beds Cause Cancer
from WebMD
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced today that it has moved UV tanning beds to its highest cancer risk category -- "carcinogenic to humans."
Prior to the move, the group had classified sun lamp and tanning bed use as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
In an interview with WebMD, the IARC’s Vincent Cogliano, PhD, called the scientific evidence linking indoor tanning to the deadly skin cancer melanoma “sufficient and compelling.”
A dramatic rise in melanoma, especially among young women, has been seen in recent years.
Cogliano said studies conducted over the past decade provide an “an abundance of evidence” that tanning bed use has played a role in this rise, along with direct sun exposure.
“People mistakenly see a tan as a sign of health when it is actually a sign of damage to the skin,” he says.
Now there are several issues here. The first is that no one can argue tanning beds are safe. End of story!
The second is that we still have the issue of some males and females who claim they look better with a tan. I don't understand. To wit: People of color in Africa and India have a caste system that ranks people as more prestigious from light to dark complexions. I know that in my parents' generation those who advocated racial equality and a color blind attitude rately lived on the same block with a person of color. I know that patients see me for treatments to make them look more youthful and yet they know that a sun tan ages their face and body. (Is anyone still arguing against me that long hair makes a woman look older?)
And yet, and yet, my wife says she wants sun tanned legs. In fact, on our last trip to Sweden she got sun tanned legs, and a sun tanned face, and a sun tanned body. OK. Her rebuttal is I am also tanned. Yet my genetics is Mediteranean and while I do monitor the amount of sun I aborb and always wear a hat and a shirt, I darken quickly. That is my Semitic heritage I cry in my defense.
And so the jury is no longer out. Sun tans and sun tan parlors cause malignant melanoma. Malignant melanoma kills people. Tanned skin looks old.
The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced today that it has moved UV tanning beds to its highest cancer risk category -- "carcinogenic to humans."
Prior to the move, the group had classified sun lamp and tanning bed use as "probably carcinogenic to humans."
In an interview with WebMD, the IARC’s Vincent Cogliano, PhD, called the scientific evidence linking indoor tanning to the deadly skin cancer melanoma “sufficient and compelling.”
A dramatic rise in melanoma, especially among young women, has been seen in recent years.
Cogliano said studies conducted over the past decade provide an “an abundance of evidence” that tanning bed use has played a role in this rise, along with direct sun exposure.
“People mistakenly see a tan as a sign of health when it is actually a sign of damage to the skin,” he says.
Now there are several issues here. The first is that no one can argue tanning beds are safe. End of story!
The second is that we still have the issue of some males and females who claim they look better with a tan. I don't understand. To wit: People of color in Africa and India have a caste system that ranks people as more prestigious from light to dark complexions. I know that in my parents' generation those who advocated racial equality and a color blind attitude rately lived on the same block with a person of color. I know that patients see me for treatments to make them look more youthful and yet they know that a sun tan ages their face and body. (Is anyone still arguing against me that long hair makes a woman look older?)
And yet, and yet, my wife says she wants sun tanned legs. In fact, on our last trip to Sweden she got sun tanned legs, and a sun tanned face, and a sun tanned body. OK. Her rebuttal is I am also tanned. Yet my genetics is Mediteranean and while I do monitor the amount of sun I aborb and always wear a hat and a shirt, I darken quickly. That is my Semitic heritage I cry in my defense.
And so the jury is no longer out. Sun tans and sun tan parlors cause malignant melanoma. Malignant melanoma kills people. Tanned skin looks old.
posted by Edward Lack MD at 5:59 PM
2 Comments:
My reaction to these findings DUH? I remember way back when my friends used to put iodine in baby oil for if you weren't tan it was abnormal. I have always hated tanning, sunning, and I was not the kind that burned my ethnic compound. As we got older the same people I knew back then were now in tanning bads,no sunscreen, and yes they looked tan a nice look but still I wasn't a convert by sun worshippers who swore I was really missing something.
I went to Jamaica when I was 26 and upon my arrival I watched a beutiful sunset on an overcasy day.It was less than 15 minutes exposure.I woke up to 2nd degree burns and was in bed for the week.
The same people still tanned and I decided to try spray tan. It gave me a nice look but I was lax about keeping it up plus it was something to commmit to.
Now here I am at 50+
and I wear sunscreen, on my body, hands and in a car with tinted glass. Yes it sound extreme but I have seen people from the past who loved the sun with dry leathery skin, some had run ins with cancer,wrinkled as well. I am very pale and veiny but I guess fun in the sun has been proven not to be so much fun in large doses.You pay a price,whether it be beds,sunlight or no proctection If you like the tan fine. If you want a reason to keep away from it.
In the final analysis you look at the hands of men & women who have spent time living for that must have glow..
There is nothing more telling and ugly than a great toned body and your "Mother's hands"
peeking through your sleeves. Diamonds don't even shine with sun spots taking your away their glow.
It's not for me but please protect the skin you are in. Tan safely:)
Do we need yet another thing in our lives to worry about that we can control? Take a minute and look around at tan hands
over 30......It is scary.
At 27 getting 2 cancerous spots removed from my face as well as 4 more that we caught in time was a blessing. It took guts to have them looked at. Getting them removed was easy but preventing it would have been much easier. Did I use tanning beds? You bet, not as much as my friends but I did grow up in the 90's.
Now, SPF 90 is my best friend. There is only so much you can blame on being young & dumb..& I still want to get a ducati!
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