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Studies link sunbed use to 75% increased risk of skin melanoma and greater likelihood of developing rare eye cancer
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Sunbeds are as carcinogenic as smoking and asbestos
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has upgraded its assessment of the risk posed by sunbeds and sunlamps and placed them in the same category as smoking. Until this report the IARC had considered sunbeds as "probably carcinogenic to humans", but after conducting further research has "raised the classification of the use of UV-emitting tanning devices to Group 1, 'carcinogenic to humans'," they said.
The IARC's research is to be published tomorrow in The Lancet Oncology and says: "A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that the risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75% when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age." They added that several studies had also linked sunbed use to a greater likelihood of developing a rare eye cancer called ocular melanoma. This places sunbeds in the same risk category as tobacco smoke, asbestos, benzine, formaldehyde and the Epstein-Barr virus, the cause of glandular fever.
