Sunbeds ‘nearly double’ cancer risk

REGULAR sunbed use can almost double the risk of skin cancer, a study suggests.

Women who went to tanning salons regularly were found to be up to 83 per cent more likely to develop the disease.

The findings come amid calls by skin specialists for a ban on sunbeds in the UK.

Sunbeds give out ultraviolet rays, and overexposure to them is the main preventable cause of skin cancer.

The Norwegian study followed more than 150,000 women aged 18 to 64 for 25 years.

They completed questionnaires about their use of sunbeds and the pigmentation of their skin. In total, 597 of them were diagnosed with skin cancer.

This enabled the academics to calculate that the risk of developing the disease increased with greater use of sunbeds.

Researcher Dr Simon Lergenmuller, an epidemiologist at the University of Oslo, said: ‘These results support development of policies that regulate indoor tanning.’

He identified a link between sunbeds and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) – a form of skin cancer that develops when UV light makes cells in the skin reproduce faster.

Dr Lergenmuller, whose research is published in the JAMA Dermatology journal, said: ‘The findings provide supporting evidence there is a dose-response association between indoor tanning and SCC risk among women.

‘ The association between cumulative exposure to indoor tanning and SCC risk was the same regardless of duration of use and age at initiation.

‘Avoidance of indoor tanning may help prevent not only melanoma but also SCC.’ Earlier this year, British Skin Foundation polling found three in four dermatologists think sunbeds should be banned in the UK. Nine in ten believe sunbeds on the high street are leading to a rise in skin cancer deaths.

Cases of melanoma have soared in the past decade, particularly in younger people. About one in ten UK adults are regular sunbed users, with one in 50 addicted to them, according to the World Health Organisation.

The Sunbeds (Regulation Act) 2010 bans under-18s from using commercial tanning. There is increasing pressure on the Government to extend this to adults.

A 2008 study by Massachusetts General Hospital found that in order to achieve a tan the skin must be exposed to UV rays. The authors concluded: ‘Thus “safe tanning’’ with UV may be a physical impossibility.’