(DailyMail photo)Decades after this became common knowledge, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) evidently thought it necessary to conduct a study looking into whether or not frying oneself in a sunbed can cause cancer.
Sunbeds pose a similar cancer risk as cigarettes and asbestos, and tanning machines should be moved to "the highest cancer risk category" and be labeled as "carcinogenic to humans," concluded the groudbreaking study by the IARC, which previously had classified sunbeds as being a "probable" cause of cancer.
According to the study's findings, the risk of melanoma--the most deadly form of skin cancer--is 75% higher in people who started using sunbeds regularly before the age of 30, CNN reported. The IARC also concluded that there's a link between melanoma of the eye and the use of sunbeds.
Predictably, the UK's Sunbed Association maintains there's no proven link between using sunbeds and cancer. What else are they supposed to say?
"We would dispute the IARC classification that sunbeds are "carcinogenic to humans," the organization wrote on its website. "The relationship between UV exposure and an increased risk of developing skin cancer is only likely to arise where over-exposure and burning in particular has taken place."
Um...let's see. People go into tanning booths to get tanned, that is, to expose themselves to UV radiation that leads to changes in skin pigmentation and, more often than not, burning of the skin. That's the purpose of a sunbed, which would not work unless one is over-exposed to UV rays while using it. Right?
The World Health Organization estimates that some 60,000 people worldwide die each year from skin cancer, with 48,000 of these due to melanoma, and 90% of the cancers are caused by ultraviolet light from the sun, CNN reported.
Sources: CNN
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people who tan responsibly do not burn when they use sunbeds, they know and understand. It is OVER exposure to UV light that causes sunburn. Plus nobody has yet quantified what the risk is, it is all very well saying a 75% increase but the figure is useless without knowing the base number.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to skin cancer, there's no way to tan "responsibly." You don't need to burn to get cancer. When you get in a sunbed, you're automatically over-exposing yourself to UV rays because had you not gotten in there, your body wouldn't have been exposed to those rays for however long you were there.
ReplyDeleteUV damage is cumulative. Over-exposure is not only about how long the person exposes him/herself in a tanning booth, but their entire lives. The cancer originates from cell mutations due to sun exposures that happened years ago and that turned out to be the straw that broke the camel's back. Genetics play a big role, too.
Not everyone who uses tanning booths regularly gets skin cancer, and not everyone who gets skin cancer uses sunbeds--just like not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, and not everyone who gets lung cancer smokes.
But you're more likely to get it if you expose yourself to what has proven to be a catalyst for cancer. So why do it when you don't need cigarettes and sunbeds to survive?
IMO, it's irresponsible no matter how you do it.