Penn State University researchers are asserting what some beach goers might say is sacrelige: that there is no longer any such thing as a suntan that is safe for humans.
Melanoma incidence is substantially higher than it was in 1970--eight times higher in women and four times higher in men--and with 60,000 new diagnoses every year and one American dying every hour from the disease, it has become a health crisis.
Curiously, many of these cases may actually be fully avoidable, as usage among women of tanning beds has been rising rapidly, with four of every five clients being female, and a good ten percent of the US population using tanning beds annually.
Despite the obvious warnings to tanning bed users, they, like cigarette smokers, continue to use the tanning beds, making melanoma one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in young people in the 20s.
A US Congressional Report published in February asserted that the multi-billion dollar tanning industry targets teenage girls with heavy promotions and advertising, and it accuses the industry of knowingly denying these risks while giving out false information to the public, even going so far as to issue misleading data on the benefits of tanning. These tactics are familiar-they have been carried out by the tobacco industry, as well as the mesothilioma industry, benzene and vinyl chloride, to name a few.
The World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies tanning beds as human carcinogens, along with cigarettes, arsenic, plutonium and mustard gas, to name just a few.
Source: Medical News Today
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