Outrage as sunbed firms threaten to sue cancer charity

MP slams them for questioning melanoma link

‘Just trying to save lives’

THE sunbed industry has been slammed for threatening to sue a leading skin cancer charity for suggesting that regular use of sunbeds increases the risk of getting the deadly disease.

In a move branded ‘unacceptable’ by an MP, the Sunbed Association has warned Melanoma UK it faces action for ‘malicious falsehood’ over its call to ban sunbeds.

Extraordinarily, the association’s chairman, Gary Lipman, has written directly to a few skin cancer patients who have spoken out in favour of a crackdown.

In 2013 Mr Lipman wrote to melanoma sufferer Mark Carter, from Scunthorpe, after Mr Carter accused him of ‘lies and deceit’ on Twitter.

Mr Lipman told him that he was leaving himself ‘wide open to legal action’ and could face ‘punitive’ damages. Mr Carter has since died.

Another patient, who did not wish to be named, was told to ‘think very carefully and seriously in future’ about linking sunbed use to skin cancer.

Melanoma UK is calling for a ban on commercial sunbeds, arguing that the move is vital to tackle a disease which kills seven people every day. Its campaigning has been applauded by the NHS, whose national cancer director, Cally Palmer, says it is ‘absolutely right to highlight the risks caused by sunbeds’.

The British Association of Dermatologists says each sunbed session increases a user’s risk of melanoma by 1.8 per cent and wants salons to display warning signs akin to those on cigarette packets.

And Cancer Research UK cites the conclusion of the International Agency for Research on Cancer that ‘there is sufficient evidence to show that using sunbeds causes melanoma skin cancer’.

Melanoma UK launched a petition last year calling for sunbeds to be banned in this country, saying: ‘ Sunbed users have an increased risk of developing skin cancer.’ It attracted 15,000 signatures.

But in correspondence seen by the Daily Mail, lawyers for the Sunbed Association – which represents manufacturers and tanning salons – have accused Melanoma UK of causing it ‘ financial loss’. They said its campaign is ‘irresponsible, alarming and wrong’. In a letter sent in January, lawyers RIAA Barker Gillette warn that claiming there is a ‘ proven link’ between sunbed use and skin cancer is ‘factually incorrect’. The letter says: ‘Our client’s position is clear: responsible use giving rise to tanning (not burning), especially through a salon which signs up to The Sunbed Association’s Code of Practice, does not pose a health risk.’ Yesterday the founder of Melanoma UK, Gillian Nuttall, spoke of her shock at the threats. ‘I have attended multiple funerals of people who have died from melanoma,’ she said. ‘The link between sunbed use and melanoma is clear – how can the Sunbed Association say our campaign is a malicious falsehood?’

The charity is backed by Pauline Latham, the Tory MP for Mid Derbyshire, who lost her brother to melanoma. She said the legal threats were ‘ unacceptable’, adding: ‘Melanoma UK is just trying to save lives.’ The Sunbed Association denied its lawyers had made threats. It claimed Mr Lipman had been writing in a personal capacity, even though his letters feature the association’s branding.

It cited research which it said cast doubt on whether sunbed use was the cause of skin cancer in people who had used tanning salons, claiming ‘moderate exposure may outweigh the risk of over exposure’.