Tanning Booths Listed among Deadliest Cancer-Causers

[FlyingDutchman]

Tanning Booths Listed among Deadliest Cancer-Causers

Is tanning safe? Not even close. In fact, tanning booths are as much of a cancer trigger as arsenic or cigarettes, according to new findings.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The leading research agency that provides cancer information to the World Health Organization has moved tanning beds into the highest cancer risk category, where it accompanies carcinogens like arsenic, asbestos, cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco. The special report appears in the current journal The Lancet Oncology. As with some other high-risk cancer-causers, tanning beds are an all-too-common health threat. “The use of UV [ultraviolet ray]-emitting tanning devices is widespread in many developed countries, especially among young women,” says report author Fatiha El Ghissassi, MD, of the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monograph Working Group.

THE DETAILS: The combined analysis of more than 20 epidemiological studies found that the risk of melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is increased by 75 percent when people use tanning devices before age 30. In addition, several other studies referenced by the group found that UV-emitting tanning beds and booths can lead to melanoma of the eye. IARC also reclassified UV radiation in the carcinogenic to humans category, meaning it’s not safe to lay out in the sun, either. Previously, UVB rays have been blamed for cancer, but the new report says UVA radiation has also been found to be a culprit in animal studies. These findings reinforce current recommendations by the World Health Organization to avoid sunlamps and tanning parlors, and to protect yourself from overexposure to the sun.

WHAT IT MEANS: Skin cancer affects more than 1 million people a year; more than 60,000 of those cases involve melanoma, a much more serious skin cancer that will claim the lives of about 9,000 people this year, according to the American Cancer Society. Early detection is key. When caught early, melanoma is highly curable, although it can return at the same spot or in other organs. Prevention remains the best approach.

Here’s how to keep your skin safe:

• Know your risk. Visit your dermatologist for annual body checks, but the American Cancer Society recommends scheduling an appointment sooner if you notice:

Any change on the skin, especially in the size or color of a mole or other darkly pigmented growth or spot, or a new growth or the spread of pigmentation beyond its border, such as dark coloring that spreads past the edge of a mole or mark

Scaliness, oozing, bleeding, or change in the appearance of a bump or nodule

A change in sensation, itchiness, tenderness, or pain.

Earlier this year, researchers also announced six easy-to understand melanoma risk factors.

• Find safer sunscreen. Not all sunscreens contain ingredients that are equally safe for you and the environment. And not all work best in the same conditions. So shop around to find the type you’re most comfortable using. As a general rule of thumb, stay away from sprays because the chemicals will wind up not just on your skin, but in your lungs, too. Environmental Working Group’s brands rated the highest in safety and effectiveness often contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. Visit Environmental Working Group website, where you can search different lists to find the best fit for your needs.

• Dress for protection. Sunscreens are important, no doubt, but by wearing SPF clothing, wide-brimmed hats, and sunglasses that block UV rays, you can cut down on the amount of sunscreen you need to slather all over your body. Regular cotton T-shirts offer little protection from the sun, so choose tightly woven fabrics that you can’t see through when you hold them up to the light.

• Use your noggin. Common sense tells us to avoid hanging out in the sun unprotected all day, but we’ve all been guilty of soaking up a little bit too much sun from time to time. To lower your risk of skin cancer, stay out of peak sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., seek out shady spots, and make supplements your main source of vitamin D (which occurs naturally when sunlight hits your skin at certain times of the year). And of course, stay out of tanning beds and booths. You’re beautiful just the way you are!

[TWiST]

What with having an Australian mother, I've had this stuff drummed into me from birth! They're obsessed with skin cancer down there, it seems. Kind of irrelevant for me, though... likelihood of getting a suntan here in London, even with holes in the ozone layer or whatever, is kind of low... anyway....

Those artificial tanning things have always sounded dodgy as hell to me... this just reinforces that. I mean, you're basically lightly frying your body in a microwave. Can't be good, can it? XxX

[FlyingDutchman]

Originally Posted by TWiST

I mean, you're basically lightly frying your body in a microwave. Can't be good, can it? XxX

I tell that to the people at work. They do the early Spring tanning, so when they start working outside later in the season, they don't burn up. I tell them, you fried yourself already in early Spring, so what does it matter?

I also think society tells us that a slight brown color on your body looks better, instead of being white.

[TWiST]

Originally Posted by FlyingDutchman

I also think society tells us that a slight brown color on your body looks better, instead of being white.

Yeah... never understood why. I much prefer pale, creamy flesh, myself.
XxX

[Jenny Seemore]

Originally Posted by TWiST

Yeah... never understood why. I much prefer pale, creamy flesh, myself.
XxX

This wasn't always the case. In almost all societies, in Ancient Greece and Rome etc. pale skin was considered beautiful. Same goes for the 18th and 19th centuries, where it was attractive to have pale "porcelain" skin. A tan was sign of a lower class, because these people had to work in the fields, with no sun screen. The nobility would party in their castles, and stay pale. Today a tan is a sign of a lifestyle of leisure, because workers are in factories and offices, while the playboys and girls work out and get tanned.

[TWiST]

Ooooh, fascinating! Thanks for the info, Ms Seemore!
XxX

[sicninja]

you see i don't need to tan. my neighbor tans like every other day and i warn her about the dangers of it. she just shrugs it off. oh well she'll learn the hard way.

[Jenny Seemore]

Originally Posted by TWiST

Ooooh, fascinating! Thanks for the info, Ms Seemore!
XxX

The same is somehow true for BBWs. From the stone age (venus of Willendorf) to the Renaissance (Rubens), big women were considered beautiful. Having a fat wife was a sign of high social status, means. If you could feed a fat bitch you were somebody, and being skinny meant you couldn't afford food. Again, times have changed. Today being fat is often associated with pigging out at cheap fast food places, while being skinny is considered healthy, because you can feed a family of four at Burger King for what a bottle of organic juice and a rucola salad at the health food store costs.

[FlyingDutchman]

Two things:
In the Middle East women do not tan. The whiter the skin the more attractive the women. I remember living in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. The women are covered with an abia. So say you were on the market buyng food and a woman would reach for fruit, she stretched out her arm from under her abia, you would see this perfect very white skin.

As for fat. In Africa and many other 3rd world nations, you are considered "rich" if you are fat. As you can afford as much food as you want.

[gemchampion]

The lengths we all endure for vanity. I do feel soprry for those who feel they must have to subjugate themselves to such torture just to look better. That's a nasty trade, if you ask me. A more bronzed skin for a shorter life span due to skin cancer. I'LL TAKE IT!

This makes me glad God blessed me with a natural tan.

[Scarlette]

Originally Posted by FlyingDutchman

I tell that to the people at work. They do the early Spring tanning, so when they start working outside later in the season, they don't burn up. I tell them, you fried yourself already in early Spring, so what does it matter?

I also think society tells us that a slight brown color on your body looks better, instead of being white.

I am glad I like my whiter shade of pale!