New warning for tan fans

By ANGELA GREGORY

American researchers say tanning beds and sun lamps may more than double the risk of non-melanoma skin cancer.

A team from the Dartmouth Medical School, in New Hampshire, interviewed 603 people who had just been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, and 293 with squamous cell carcinoma.

They also spoke to 540 people who did not have skin cancer.

Researchers asked the study's participants how often they sunbathed, whether they ever had sunburn, if they smoked or underwent radiation treatment, and whether they used tanning lamps.

Those who used a tanning lamp or sunbed were 2.5 times more likely to be in the squamous cell carcinoma group, and 1.5 times more likely to be in the basal cell carcinoma group, than those who said they had never used the devices.

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is one of several that strongly linked the use of tanning lamps with skin cancer.

The researchers suggested use of the devices be limited to adults, and anyone who used a tanning bed perhaps be required to sign a consent form acknowledging the risks.

The very people who were warned to stay out of the sun were the ones most likely to use the tanning devices, they said.

"Study subjects who reported using tanning devices were more likely to be female, to be 50 years of age or younger, to [be] sun-sensitive ... to have more painful sunburns and to have sunbathed more than four times a year," the study said.

As with sun exposure, the risk of cancer built over time.

Those most likely to have developed skin cancer had first used the tanning devices decades earlier.

An Auckland dermatologic surgeon, Dr Kevin McKerrow, said it was well established that indoor tanning increased the risk of skin cancers, including melanoma which was the most lethal form.

New Zealand had one of the world's highest death rates from melanoma, with about 1600 new cases reported each year.

Dr McKerrow was sceptical of how the researchers could claim to quantify the risk of getting non-melanoma cancer.

There were many variables which could confuse the results.

"Not only do sunbed bunnies tan inside but on the beach as well."

Ray Trigg, the Auckland owner of three Body Bronze tanning studios and an importer of sunbeds and lamps, was suspicious of the study findings.

Mr Trigg said indoor tanning was safer than outdoor exposure to sunlight because the timing was controlled and the equipment limited the levels of harmful UVB rays.

Like many things, tanning could be dangerous if people became obsessive, he said."It can be like mountain running, they get it in their brain and they can't stop ... If you overdo it, you put yourself at risk."

nzherald.co.nz/health