Using tanning beds to get a bronze glow can almost double people’s risk of skin cancer, warns a new study.
A study of more than 150,000 women found tanning salon customers were up to 83 percent more likely to develop the disease.
Natalie Trout, 38, was one of those customers for some 13 years, bronzing herself in the faux sunlight, without any UV protection, often multiple times a week, she told Fox.
By 2016, she had developed skin cancer on her right cheek.
Although Natalie was a long-time tanning bed user, the new study’s figure was true regardless of how many years participants did it, or how old they were when they started, according to the latest findings published in JAMA Dermatology.
Natalie Trout developed melanoma in 2015 and had to have the cancer cut from her cheek (left). Though she’s now healed (right) she says she won’t forger her doctor’s warning that her tanning bed use likely triggered the disease.
For most of her life, Natalie tanned both outdoors and in.
‘Everyone around me was tanning, and I was insecure enough at the time to feel like I needed to use sunbeds as well,’ she said.
‘Usually I would burn, but that didn’t matter.
‘To me, it was better to be burnt than pale. Pale was almost unacceptable at the time.’
But it did very much matter to her skin cancer risks.
Five serious sunburns increases the risk that a person will develop skin cancer by as much as 80 percent, according to some studies.
And tanning beds seem to come with particularly serious risks.
Tanning beds give out ultraviolet (UV) rays – and overexposure to UV rays is the main preventable cause of skin cancer.
Statistics show cases of melanoma – a deadly type of skin cancer – has soared in the past decade, particularly in younger people.
An astounding third of Americans use tanning beds, despite widespread dermatologists’ warnings against doing so.
Study corresponding author Dr Simon Lergenmuller, an epidemiologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, said: ‘These results support development of policies that regulate indoor tanning.’
Sunbeds give out ultraviolet (UV) rays – and overexposure to UV rays is the main preventable cause of skin cancer.
Statistics show cases of melanoma – a deadly type of skin cancer – has soared in the past decade, particularly in younger people.
In the first study of its kind, lead study author Dr Simon Lergenmuller and his colleagues at the University of Oslo identified a ‘dose-response link’ with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
What started as rough, red patch on her cheek turned out to be cancer. New Oslo University research suggests that using tanning beds nearly doubles the risk of skin cancer
This is a form of skin cancer that develops when UV light makes cells in the skin reproduce faster – resulting in a tumor.
It’s one of the most common forms of cancer worldwide. The Norwegian participants were aged 18 to 64 and followed for up to 25 years.
They completed questionnaires about their use of indoor sunbeds and the pigmentation of their skin.
In total, around seven-in-ten said they had used the sunbeds – with the practice being more common in younger individuals.
Dr Lergenmuller said: ‘Risk of SCC increased with increasing cumulative number of indoor tanning sessions.’
This applied to both women who used them for 10 years or less – and more than 10 years.
They were 41 and 43 per cent more likely to develop the disease than those who had never used them.
Those younger or older than 30 when they began were 51 and 36 percent more prone.
Dr Lergenmuller said: ‘The findings provide supporting evidence there is a dose-response association between indoor tanning and SCC risk among women.
Natalie was horrified that she’d developed not just skin cancer, but the more deadly form of the disease. Luckily, it was removed while it was still stage zero
‘The association between cumulative exposure to indoor tanning and SCC risk was the same regardless of duration of use and age at initiation.’
Norway, one of the few countries with national high-quality SCC incidence data, has had a nine and sixfold increase in SCC incidence among women and men respectively since 1963.
Dr Lergenmuller added: ‘Avoidance of indoor tanning may help prevent not only melanoma but also SCC.’
There is increasing pressure on the government to extend this to adults.
The World Health Organisation has said they are as dangerous as smoking.
Natalie noticed a ‘dry red spot’ on her cheek in 2015. She had it frozen off, but a year later it was back, and she was diagnosed with melanoma.
Although it’s not the same type of cancer that Dr Lergenmuller studied, it’s still caused by UV exposure.
‘I remember driving to my parents’ house, and I hadn’t even cried yet. Then, when I saw my parents, I broke down,’ Natalie told Fox.
‘I had skin cancer, and not just any skin cancer, but the deadliest kind.’
Luckily, the spot was in the earliest stages of cancer – stage zero – but had to be cut out, leaving Natalie’s cheek marred.
‘My oncologist said it was likely a combination of sunbeds and natural sunlight that led to melanoma; I simply didn’t take good care of my skin,’ Natalie said.
‘Being tanned is not more important than being healthy.
‘Take care of your skin. And if you see any suspicious spots, don’t wait to see a dermatologist. Even if it turns out to be nothing, at least you know.’