Father Loses 2 Young Children In Tornado
Why It's Hard To Get Along With Your In-Laws
Tanning Teens Run High Risk Of Skin Cancer, FDA Warns
Filed under: In The News, Health & Safety: Teens, Research Reveals: Teens
Katie Donnar, 18, who frequently used tanning beds, shows the scar from where a melanoma was removed from her leg. Credit: Daniel R. Patmore, AP
Tanning beds cause cancer.That's the conclusion of a report by the World Health Organization's cancer division, and young people run a particularly high risk.
WHO researchers looked at numerous studies and concluded the risk of melanoma jumps by 75 percent in people who used tanning beds in their teens and 20s.
That's one reason, according to the Associated Press, that U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials are debating whether or not to slap sterner warning labels on tanning beds and sun lamps.
Katie Donnar thinks that might be a good idea. The 18-year-old Indiana woman tells the wire service she learned the hard way there's no such thing as a safe tan. She has the scar on her leg to prove it.
It marks the spot where she found a cancerous growth a year ago while she was preparing for the Miss Indiana pageant.
Although she can pinpoint tanning beds as the cause, she tells the Associated Press she started the ol' fake and bake when she was a sixth-grade cheerleader. She tanned at least every other day during parts of high school, she adds. She even owned her own tanning bed.
"It seemed somewhat of a myth that I was putting myself at risk," the Bruceville, Ind., teen tells the wire service. "The warning label was so small -- nothing to make me stop and think, 'This is real.' "
Food and Drug Administration officials regulate tanning beds as "Class I Devices." That means they're considered low-risk medical devices. That classification also includes bandages. Like Donnar said, tanning beds have warning labels.
They're just small.
FDA officials say the labels don't shout cancer warnings loud enough -- especially to young people. Officials began exploring bigger warning labels last March.
It would be better if people didn't use tanning beds at all, Sharon Miller, the FDA's ultraviolet radiation specialist, tells the Associated Press. "But we know people do use them, so we want to make them as low-risk as possible," she adds.
However, the president of the Indoor Tanning Association tells the AP this is an example of unnecessary -- and scientifically unjustified -- government regulation. Dan Humiston tells the wire service people are only hurt when they've been out in the sun (real or electric) too long.
Humiston's organization and the FDA can agree on one point: The biggest risk comes from overexposure. The AP reports people often go to tanning salons three or more times a week when a single weekly visit would create the same visible tan.
Donnar tells the AP she gets her tan from a can these days when she competes for pageants. "My friends call me 'snow princess' now but I feel comfortable in my own skin," she adds.
Related: Skin Cancer, Melanoma: Exams And Tests
Your<span>Voice</span>
Ask Us Anything About Parenting
TheTalkies:RelatedVideos
-
New Study Finds Skin Cancer Patients Still Tanning
Surviving deadly skin cancer doesn't prevent tanning worshippers from going unprotected and even lying in tanning beds, according to research by the Yale Cancer Center.
Failure to use sunscreen and using indoor tanning beds, which generate ultraviolet light to mimic sunlight, "significantly raise the risk of developing melanoma,' which is the most dangerous form of skin cancer, according to a release.
-
Why Tanning Beds Are Hazardous to Your Health
Just yesterday, Lancet Oncology, a leading medical journal stated that, "The risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75% when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age." While the medical community has known that tanning salons cause skin cancer (the most common form of cancer), there is now finally proof. Dr. Schultz will also explain why tanning beds are so hazardous to your health.
-
Tanning Beds Are Linked to Non-Melanoma Cancer
Tanning beds are linked to increase in non-melanoma skin cancers.
-
Tanning Beds Linked to 20% Increase in Skin Cancer
Tanning beds are linked to a 20-percent increased risk of melanoma.
SitesWeLove
- Site Map
- |
- Staff
- |
- Terms of Service
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Trademarks
- |
- Advertise With Us
- |
- About Our Ads
- |
- AOL Downloads
- |
- Contact Us
- |
© Copyright 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Aol Family
ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-19-2010 @ 5:42PM
bill said...the FDA also says aspartame is safe. since uv produces vitamin D, and the FDA has tried to reclassify vitamins as drugs for power and profit of their masters before, you kinda have to wonder. I've met/known 7 ppl that have had or died from skin cancer, and a few fury animals with it as well, but none of them were tanners in the least. notice the FDA makes no mention of chemicals from dermal cosmetic products or the carcinogenic chlorine we bathe in everyday via municiple water. natural or not,brown butted women rule!
Reply
1-21-2010 @ 11:43AM
Nancy said...Katie - Thank you for coming forward with your story. Best Wishes for a long and happy life.
Reply
1-21-2010 @ 12:33PM
Shelly said...I believe the beds do. I worked for a tanning salon when i was 17 i worked there for a 1 1/2 yrs. They made me stay dark to work for them or they would give me days off. I'm paying for it now. And i'm in my 40's. I have precancerous spots called actinic Keratosis I have to have the spots froze. Because if they don't they can turn to squamous cell carcinomas and that can be deadly. But thats just my opinion on the beds.
Reply
1-22-2010 @ 9:09AM
SPFZero said...It’s that time of year when chemical sunscreen (a $35 billion industry) promotes its product at the expense of your health. They pay actors, beauty queens and cosmetic dermatologists to claim their product prevents skin cancer (chemical sunscreen is prohibited by law to make such claims) and the sun and sunbeds are the antichrist. I don’t believe God made the sun to kill us and I’m pretty sure 4 million years of evolution cannot be negated by 40 years of chemical sunscreen marketing. This is what I know.
When I was four, my mother died from ovarian cancer. She suffered the usual sadistic medical procedures before succumbing. My father died from prostate cancer months before his first grandchild would be born. He first endured removal of his prostate and later, when the cancer spread, his colon was removed. They both avoided sunshine.
Eleven years ago I learned my parents’ killer cancers are linked to sun/sunbed avoidance. In fact 14 cancers, including Melanoma according to a Dana Farber study, are linked to sun/sunbed avoidance. Your liver makes a hormone using vitamin d made naturally when your skin is exposed to UVB. That hormone, when vitamin d levels are sufficient (40-60ng/ml), turns on a gene that fights cancer.
It is estimated, in a review of 275 epidemiological studies, 338,000 Americans will die this year due to insufficient sunshine. With sufficient sunshine my parents would be alive today. I chose as nature intended –regular non-burning sun exposure and during winter I use a sunbed twice a week. Visit www.grassrootshealth.net for more information.
Reply