The link between tanning beds and the deadliest form of skin cancer is now as definitive as the one between tobacco and lung cancer, an international cancer research group said Tuesday.
Tanning beds, which many Michiganders use to keep a summer glow during winter, have a heavy cost -- a 2006 analysis found a person who uses tanning beds before age 30 runs a 75% greater risk of eventually getting melanoma than someone who doesn't use beds.
The study was an analysis of many other studies that looked at several indicators of skin cancer.
That risk doesn't stop customers at Coral Beach Tanning Salon in Dearborn, said manager Sami Eid of Dearborn.
"There are some people who are not really concerned at all. ... We do have people who do a lot of tanning, almost every day," Eid said.
That attitude concerns doctors like Dr. Michael Sabel of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
"Skin cancer is one of the fastest-rising cancers and melanoma is one of the deadliest solid tumors we deal with," Sabel said.
Like smoking, early exposure to both ultraviolet A and B rays (UVA and UVB) -- which tanning beds emit -- doesn't show up as cancer until later in life, he said.
The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer made the announcement after finding enough evidence in people and mice that UVA and UVB rays damage skin-cell DNA, sometimes in cancer-blocking genes.
The result is three types of skin cancer: the less dangerous basal and squamous cell skin cancers and melanoma, which is hard to treat once it has spread, Dr. Darius Mehregan, a Wayne State University dermatologist, said.
The American Academy of Dermatology had no comment on the international decree and calls to the Indoor Tanning Association were not immediately returned.
Tanning salons are not regulated by the Michigan Department of Community Health, although they are required to post warning signs about ultraviolet exposure, spokesman James McCurtis said.
Chelsea Mitchell, 20, of Dearborn said she thought moderate use was OK, despite the study. She goes to Coral Beach once a week for the tanning beds and spray machines. She's a bit concerned about the issue of health, but not too much. "Because I'm so light-skinned, it does make me nervous," said Mitchell, a hairstylist.
The American Melanoma Foundation said three out of four skin cancer deaths are from melanoma and it is the second most common cancer in women between ages 20 and 30. A Stanford University study released in January found skin cancer increasing in men age 65 and older.
Contact MEGHA SATYANARAYANA: 313-223-4544 or megha@freepress.com To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com Copyright (c) 2009, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, Detroit Free Press