HHS HealthBeat (July 13, 2010)

Indoor tanning and dangerous skin cancer

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study of almost 2,300 people finds that indoor tanning raises the risk of the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma.

DeAnn Lazovich of the University of Minnesota bases that on data about the frequency of indoor tanning by people who had melanoma and those who did not have it. Frequent indoor tanning – more than 50 hours, more than 100 sessions, or more than 10 years – raised the risk by 2.5 to 3 times.

Lazovich concludes:

"Indoor tanning is not safe, and it’s not safe because of the strong link to melanoma." (5 seconds)

And she says no one type of indoor tanning equipment is safer than another.

The study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 21, 2011