Bikinis a health risk says researchers

Bikinis may be a health risk, researchers say.

The fashion for skimpy swimwear could be behind the rapid increase of melanomas in young women.

The most serious form of skin cancer has almost doubled in 20 to 24-year-olds, and shrinking swimming costumes may be contributing to the rise.

Specialists at the third international conference on teenage cancer in London this week said the pattern of melanomas in young women had changed.

Peter Selby, professor of cancer medicine at St James University Hospital, Leeds, said most melanomas seen in young women aged 15 to 24 today were on the trunk.

But 30 years ago it was different.

"We were taught that melanomas occurred on the legs and arms in women, which were the parts exposed to the sun. In men it was on their trunks because they took their shirts off.

"Now that has changed."

Melanomas have grown faster in women than in men, and are one of the cancers most clearly linked with changing lifestyles.

They account for more than one in 10 cancers among 20- to 24-year-olds. The growing popularity of holidays in the sun is blamed for the increase.

- INDEPENDENT