Women who love tanning are in for a bad news. A new study found that indoor tanning is linked to melanoma.
According to a new research involving people under 50 diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer, there is a significant relationship between indoor tanning and cancer, Reuters Health reported. Interestingly, majority of those diagnosed before age 30 were those who tanned indoors. The findings also revealed that tanning indoors is associated with 60% higher chance of getting melanoma among young women.
This is not the first time a study revealed that inner tanning is associated with melanoma. An Australian study back in 2011 showed the same. The new study by DeAnn Lazovich of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and her colleagues, however, is the first time that specifically separated men and women. That almost all of the risk of melanoma related to indoor tanning was among women was surprising, as was the very strong association among the youngest women," Lazovich said.
Chelsea Dawson's article with The Roanoke Times was timely. According to Dawson, parents have to protect the youth now from indoor tanning. Citing her own experience, she said that more than ever, it is important for Virginia's General Assembly to pass the currently still pending legislation that would ban young people from using indoor tanning devices.
Dawson said her mom was not aware of the negative effects of tanning devices and signed the forms that would let her get a salon membership. She said she realized that was wrong because at age 23, she was diagnosed with stage 3 malignant melanoma.
She wrote that passing the law will be effective in dissuading teens from using tanning devices. "States with indoor tanning laws have a lower teen tanning rate than states without such laws. Our elected officials should pass legislation to protect youth from the potentially deadly harms of exposure to ultraviolet radiation," she wrote.