Tanning Beds As Big a Health Risk as Tobacco

July 29, 2009 - Most lights used in tanning beds give off primarily ultraviolet radiation, which cause skin and eye cancer. As use of tanning beds has increased among people under 30, doctors have seen a parallel rise in the numbers of young people with skin cancer. The CBS Evening News reported that, according to a paper published online July 29 in The Lancet Oncology, tanning beds may "pose as big a risk as tobacco and asbestos." An international panel of cancer experts upgraded the warning on tanning beds from "probably" to "definitely able to cause cancer."

        The Washington Post points out that after looking at 20 different studies on the subject, the conclusion was that the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30. In addition, researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the "cancer arm" of the World Health Organization, "found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice, proof the radiation is carcinogenic. Previously, only one type of ultraviolet radiation was thought to be lethal." Now, "the new classification means tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus, and chimney sweeping, among others."

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