Yesterday the International Agency for Cancer Research made official what everybody had long suspected, tanning beds definitely cause cancer. The agency announced it was moving tanning beds, from its previous classification of “probably” carcinogenic, to its highest classification of “carcinogenic to humans”.
This doesn’t really come as any huge surprise to me, but its a final official stamp that all the rumors are true. It seems kinda obvious when you think about, after all what are tanning beds but shortcuts and we all know that shortcuts are never without their perils.
“The use of tanning beds can be deleterious to your health and we hope to encourage governments to formulate restrictions and regulations for the use of tanning beds,” said report coauthor Beatrice Secretan, from the Cancer Monograph Working Group at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France. The Agency is part of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The first priority of the WHO is to restrict the use of tanning beds by those under 18, Secretan said. “If controls are put in place it will reduce the risks of the users or deter people from using them,” she said.
I have to completely agree with them on this point. There really is no reason for someone under the age of 18 to be using a tanning bed. Those decisions should be made by adults who want to toss aside the warnings about their health, similar to cigarettes.
The frightening part about this is just how risky going to tanning beds is. According to the study, the risk of melanoma increases by a whopper of 75% when use of tanning beds and sunlamps starts before the age of 30. This is hardly an insignificant step up.
Living here in Florida it seems like there on tanning salons on every corner. I often wonder why? Is it because these people are so worried about skin cancer that they think its a safe alternative? It would be nice if that was the case, but from my experiences that is not the case. People use tanning salons because its quicker and easier to get that golden bronze that they crave.
Did they actually expect that the quicker, easier way was also going to be safer? I can’t think of any case where that’s true. If you can please share it in the comments section.
Don’t expect all the tanning salons to go out of business this week, that’s never going to happen. People are going to keep on using them, because they think the reward is worth the risk. That’s a personal choice that each person has to make for themselves and I’m not going to knock it here. I can attest from personal experience that people that go to tanning salons all the time, become almost addicted to it. These people aren’t going to stop.
Expect to see some work by national or state legislatures concerning tanning beds in the upcoming months. That ban for people under 18 is likely to be put in effect, and I imagine huge warning signs being required to be placed all over the tanning salons. Now that there is the official stamp that it causes cancer, these legislatures can start moving on it.
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