Three scientific studies add more evidence to danger of tanning beds

William Atkins
Sunday, 21 September 2008 20:56

Science - Health

The three October 2008 articles on the dangers of tanning beds are found in the journal Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research. They all dramatically point toward the risk of too much natural sunning, including the use of tanning beds and artificial sunning.


The website for the journal Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research, where the three articles are published, is found in the issue October 2008.

The U.S. News and World Report article “No Tan Is a Safe Tan: Trio of studies finds UV rays from tanning beds no better than sun itself ” states “Evidence is accumulating that there is no such thing as a 'safe tan.'"

The USNWR article continues, “Ultraviolet rays, no matter where you get them from, cause skin cancer, and the purported health benefits of UV rays, such as vitamin D production, are overstated, if not downright wrong.”

Summaries of the three articles in the journal Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research are discussed below.

FIRST ARTICLE

The article “UV and pigmentation: molecular mechanisms and social controversies” is authored by Thanh-Nga T. Tran, Joshua Schulman and David E. Fisher.

They are all member of the Department of Dermatology, Cutaneous Biology Research Center, and Melanoma Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

The abstract to their paper includes this statement, “Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is an essential risk factor for the development of premalignant skin lesions as well as of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer.”

It continues to say it is a known medical fact that ultraviolet radiation is medically harmful to the skin in the form of skin cancer.

The authors go on to state that their paper, “… summarize the knowledge about the ultraviolet (UV) response in regards to inflammation, immunosuppression, carcinogenesis and the tanning response. We also discuss vit D [vitamin D] and UV, as well as public health implications of tanning behavior and commercial interests related to the promotion of UV exposure. As the most ubiquitous human carcinogen, UVR [ultraviolet radiation] exposure represents both a challenge and enormous opportunity in the realm of skin cancer prevention.”

You can read the entire scientific paper at “UV and pigmentation: molecular mechanisms and social controversies.”

They conclude by saying that the safe use of tanning beds “may be a physical impossibility” and that ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is one of the “most avoidable” causes of cancer.

The authors make the following conclusion:

•     “Whereas genetic and other factors undoubtedly contribute importantly to skin cancer risk, the role of UV is incontrovertible, and efforts to confuse the public, particularly for purposes of economic gain by the indoor tanning industry, should be vigorously combated for the public health.”

Page two contains information about the second article.