Sunbeds still causing dangerous skin cancer

Tougher action is needed to reduce sunbed use and prevent skin cancer, researchers warn today.

Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Dr Mathieu Boniol of the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France, and colleagues looked at the findings of 27 studies on skin cancer and sunbed use carried out from 1981 to 2012 in countries including the UK, France and Germany. The studies covered 11,428 skin cancer cases.

Analysis suggested that the risk of skin cancer from using a sunbed was raised by at least 20 per cent, or by up to 87 per cent if sunbeds are used before the age of 35. The team calculated a 1.8 per cent rise in skin cancer risk for each additional sunbed session per year.

This means that, of the 63,942 new cases of melanoma diagnosed every year in 18 Western European countries, 3,438 cases (5.4 per cent) and 794 deaths may be caused by sunbed use.

Details of the study are published by the British Medical Journal today (July 25). Dr Boniol and his team believe that previous studies tended to underestimate the risk because the use of sunbeds is relatively new.

They write: "Prevention of the harmful effects associated with sunbed use must be based on tougher actions."

International recommendations call for the restriction of sunbed use for those under 18 years, and a ban on unsupervised indoor tanning facilities. This type of restriction has already been implemented in Australia and several European countries.

The authors conclude: "If sunbed use by teenagers and young adults does not substantially decrease in the short term, then more radical actions should be envisioned, such as nationwide prohibition of the public use of tanning devices."

Cutaneous melanoma attributable to sunbed use: systematic review and meta-analysis. Bonio, M. et al. The British Medical Journal July 25 2012 doi: 10.1136/bmj.e4757