Did You Know Indoor Tanning is a Key Risk Factor for Skin Cancer?
Tanning outside or indoors can have dangerous consequences. tanning? Tanning is a sign of skin damage. That “glow” of a tan is the very opposite of healthy; it is evidence of DNA injury to your skin. Tanning damages your skin cells and speeds up visible signs of aging. Worst of all, tanning can lead to developing skin cancer.
It’s a fact: There is no such thing as a safe or healthy tan. Tanning increases your risk of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, melanoma, and ocular melanoma as well as premature skin aging and developing cataracts.Tus cell skin cancer, and basal cell carcinoma
Dangerous Exposure to UV Radiation
Artificial tanning devices such as tanning beds and sunlamps emit UV radiation, much like the sun does.
Getting a tan from an indoor tanning bed is no safer than getting a tan from the sun. Remember, any tan indicates that your skin is damaged, so maintaining a tan increases the injury. To make matters worse, artificial tanning devices can be more dangerous because they emit a powerful “dose” of UV radiation. In some cases, they emit UV radiation up to 15 times the strength of the midday summer sun.
400,000
Skin cancer cases in the U.S.
caused by indoor tanning every year
Indoor Tanning Facts & Statistics
- The International Agency of Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organization, has declared ultraviolet (UV) radiation from artificial sources such as tanning beds and sun lamps as “carcinogenic to humans.” These devices were elevated to the highest cancer risk category, which includes other carcinogens such as radon, tobacco, and asbestos.
- Using indoor tanning beds and other indoor devices before the age of 35 increases your risk of melanoma by 59%, and the risk increases with each use.
- More people develop skin cancer because of indoor tanning than develop lung cancer because of smoking.
- Women younger than 30 are six times more likely to develop melanoma if they tan indoors. At all ages, the more women tan indoors, the higher their risk of developing melanoma.
- Approximately 7.8 million adult women and 1.9 million adult men in the United States tan indoors.
- Thirty-five percent of American adults, 59% of college students, and 17% of teens have reported using a tanning device in their lifetime.
- Nearly 70% of tanning salon customers are white girls and women, primarily between the ages of 15 to 29.
- Research indicates that more than half of indoor tanners (52.5%) start tanning before the age of 21. More than 44% of those who started tanning before age 16 reported they did so with a family member. More than 49% of those who started tanning with a family member did so with their mother.