Statistics About Tanning Beds and Skin Cancer
Take your tanning bed burn seriously, and learn the facts about skin cancer and tanning booths
It’s time you heard the statistics about tanning beds and skin cancer. The mixed messages we hear about skin cancer and tanning booths are confusing and leave one feeling uncertain. For example, the myth that unless you get a tanning bed burn you don’t need to worry about skin cancer, is absolutely not true! So here are the medical facts.
1. The number of skin cancer cases has increased to more than a million new cases each year in the United States.
2. Most serious form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, is expected to increase to over 60,000 new cases in 2005 in the United States.
3. Melanoma is the most common cancer in the 25 to 29 year old age group.
4. Malignant melanoma cases 75% of all skin cancer deaths.
5. Malignant melanoma spreads to other organs including lungs and liver.
6. A late diagnosis of melanoma usually is incurable. Early stage melanoma has a better success rate.
7. UV rays appear to be the most important environmental factor in developing skin cancer making skin cancer very preventable.
8. UV rays from artificial sources such as tanning beds and sun lamps are as dangerous as those from the sun.
9. Women who use tanning beds more than once a month are 55% more likely to develop malignant melanoma.
10. When tanning beds and sun lamps first hit the market nearly 20 years ago, the emitted strong doses of UVB rays. Today they give off only 5% UVB rays.
11. UVA exposure can cause the same problems as UVB rays – sunburns, wrinkles, and skin cancer.
12. Fair skinned people are at the highest risk for melanoma.
13. The medical association wants laws passed to ban minors from being able to use sun tanning beds because of the increased risks of cancer.
14. A study by the Department of Dermatology at Johns Hopkins University confirmed the danger of tanning beds. It concluded that even short term tanning in salons was just as harmful as the sun’s rays and caused the same damage that triggers skin cancer.
15. Using a sun protective factor SPF of 15 or more for indoor and outdoor tanning can help protect the skin.
16. Pregnant women should consult their doctor before using a tanning bed. Studies are unclear as to whether the baby could suffer an increased risk of skin cancer.
17. Skin cancer is not an old persons disease.
18. It takes approx. 10 years from time of exposure to the development of skin cancer.
19. 95% of skin cancers are the less serious form.
20. When melanoma is caught early it has a 95% 5 year survival rate.
21. Ten trips to a tanning bed doubles your risk of melanoma.
22. In 90% of cases, severe sunburns trigger melanoma.
23. In the United States in 2003 one in 65 people has a risk of getting melanoma. It is projected by 2010 the rate will be one in 50.
It’s not that tanning beds are more dangerous than the sun. It’s just that they are not safer than the sun, as once thought. Years of studies have given the medical community the information they needed to make recommendation. It is now believed that any type of sun tanning, be it on a tanning bed or at the beach puts you at a higher risk of developing skin cancer.
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