Report Says Tanning Beds More Dangerous than Smoking

Check this out, a new study not only claims tannings beds are dangerous, it goes a step further to say it leads to a greater number of cancer diagnoses than smoking cigarettes.

A new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association – Dermatology says:

Our estimate of more than 450 000 new cases of skin cancer attributable to indoor tanning each year in the regions examined is alarming. To put this number into context, we show that the number of skin cancer cases due to indoor tanning is higher than the number of lung cancer cases due to smoking in the same regions. Clearly, the mortality associated with lung cancer is far greater than that for skin cancer, and smoking causes many other health risks. However, it is striking that although the population proportional attributable risks of these 2 behaviors are quite different (approximately 3%-22% for skin cancer compared with approximately 90% for lung cancer), the extremely high incidence of skin cancer means that there are more skin cancer cases attributable to indoor tanning than lung cancer cases attributable to smoking. Furthermore, indoor tanning is a relatively new behavior that may be growing in popularity, whereas smoking rates are declining in Western regions,104,105 so it is possible that the number of skin cancer cases due to indoor tanning will continue to surpass the number of lung cancer cases due to smoking in coming years.

Something to think about before trying to work on that 'base tan' before hitting the beach for spring break.