Baking should be limited to the kitchen

July 29th, 2009

By Sally

Yep–it’s true. Tanning beds are bad news…

Nor surprisingly, news came out of  a group of global researchers today in The Lancet reporting that tanning beds are as deadly as arsenic. The studies concluded that the risk of skin cancer jumped 75% for folks using tanning beds under the age of 30.  According to WebMD, The International Agency for Research on Cancer (division of the WHO) announced today that “that it has moved UV tanning beds to its highest cancer risk category .”

I don’t know about you, but this news isn’t shocking to me. The days of bronzing up before a big event are over but what about the summer months? My follow-up question is, what does this mean for sun worshippers or people just enjoying the beach? Even though we know to use sunblock (everyday!) and self-tanners, does this news show that tanning beds are more dangerous than the sun? OR are they equally as dangerous…I’ll do some digging and report back on my findings.

Based on some additional research, as expected, it looks like the sun is almost as bad as these tanning booths. Time to reapply the sunscreen…check out this WebMD article that sites some recent studies to back up these claims.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, Virus and Disease