SKIN CANCER ON A BED

What is our PROBLEM? Apparently we can’t get it through our heads that tanning isn’t a healthy habit. According to a survey from the American Academy of Dermatology, a significant percentage of young women went out of their way to use tanning beds or tan outdoors in the last year.
 With all the news coverage that’s been hitting us over the head lately, these results are pretty scary. According to a release on the study, “Thirty-two percent of respondents had used a tanning bed in the past year, and of those respondents, 25% used a tanning bed at least weekly, on average. An overwhelming majority (81%) of all respondents reported that they had tanned outdoors either frequently or occasionally in the past year.”

Deemed a known carcinogen by both the United States Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization’s International Agency of Research on Cancer panel, ultraviolet light from tanning beds can increase risk of melanoma by up to 75 percent. With approximately 75 percent of skin cancer deaths coming from melanoma, this is serious business. So who is ignoring it?

According to the study, indoor tanning was twice as likely among young women ages 18 to 22 (40 percent of respondents) than it was for teens ages 14 to 17 (22 percent of respondents).

The importance of sun protection is one topic that has not been presented silently. The risks and real-life consequences of not using a daily UVA and UVB sunscreen are serious, and even though many doctors shout it from the rooftop, the warnings may still be falling on deaf ears.

A growing number of medical organizations want to make it harder—if not impossible—for teens to take trips to the tanning salon. Until the FDA is willing to ban tanning beds, the American Academy of Dermatology wants them to prohibit access to indoor tanning for minors, educate all indoor tanning customers about cancer risks and require informed consent, implement and enforce labeling recommendations outlined in the Tanning Accountability and Notification Act, and encourage enforcement of state regulations.

They also support the indoor tanning tax, which would be a signal from the federal government to young people that indoor tanning is dangerous and should be avoided. It has the potential to save patients from the many adverse effects of chronic ultraviolet light damage, including most importantly, melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.