Released: August 14, 2006

Skin cancer in young people tied to tan salons

Source: By Paul Vitello, New York Times (Free Registration)

Even the most conscientious health officials cannot keep the sun from rising; so in response to an unexplained increase in skin cancer among young people, some have fixed their sights on a more governable suspect: the $5 billion-a-year indoor tanning industry.

Since 2003, 19 states have passed laws restricting access to tanning salons among those under 18. State laws have been adopted in the past year in New York and New Jersey, as have local laws in Westchester, Nassau, Suffolk and Rockland Counties.

Though less stringent than some health advocates would like, the new legislation reflects a growing sense of alarm among public health organizations about unregulated use of tanning beds by young people, especially teenage girls.

In the last two years, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Dermatology have labeled tanning beds as the health-peril equivalent of cigarettes. All have urged prohibiting their use by minors.

“If adults want to make the decision to use tanning beds, fine,” said Dr. James M. Spencer, clinical professor of dermatology at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and a co-author of a 2004 paper published by the Academy of Dermatology proposing regulations to bar minors in tanning salons. “But we don’t sell cigarettes to minors, and indoor tanning is similar — we know it will cause cancer. Not maybe. Not might. It’s going to cause cancer. No one under 18 should be allowed to use those things.”

There has been contradictory evidence about the relationship between skin cancer and ultraviolet light. In 2002, the federal government’s National Toxicology Program listed broad-spectrum ultraviolet radiation, whether from sunlight or sun lamps, as a known cause of both melanoma and the less lethal forms of skin cancer in humans.

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