Labor Day is upon us.  Fall is closing in and damn it, we want something to show for it, even if it is just a little color.

We have options:  Get more vitamin D than we need from the sun, justifying it by using some kind of sunscreen (I wish they still sold 4 SPF). Another option is the skin staining/spraying routine.  Mixed results on the latter.

But one option was taken away this summer, once and for all:  tanning beds. But one option was taken away this summer, once and for all:  tanning beds.  The World Health Organization’s cancer research arm announced that it “upgraded” tanning beds to a “Group 1 carcinogenic” category.  The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has taken away any doubt about the dangers. 

That means that using tanning bulbs to darken our skin is equivalent to smoking cigarettes or playing in asbestos.

Cancer organizations around the world are noting a dramatic increase in thicker and more lethal melanoma, particularly in young women. “The risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75 percent when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age,” the organization reported earlier in the year.  Many countries and some of our states forbid use of the devices by teenagers without parental consent. 

The Northern California Cancer Center also reported that melanoma cases doubled in the U.S. between the mid 1990s and 2004 and that there is strong evidence that the jump is caused by tanning beds. “The researchers concluded that the increase could not be explained by better screening and earlier detection of the cancer” reports WebMD.

Despite the combined analysis of over 20 epidemiological studies done internationally, the tanning industry denies, with some sarcasm, that there is a link.  “The fact that the IARC has put tanning bed use in the same category as sunlight is hardly newsworthy,” International Tanning Association President Dan Humiston told WebMD.  “The UV light from a tanning bed is equivalent to UV light from the sun, which has had a (carcinogenic) classification since 1992.”

Overexposure to the sun can kill us, too – that’s his argument?   They must be following the tobacco industry’s playbook from back in the ‘80’s. Someone should tell him, though. that at least in this country, the cigarette guys are losing.

I hope you took note of the lethality of tanning beds for young women.  It is a very popular thing to do among teenage girls.  Spread the word of the dangers, this is serious business.  And if your state doesn’t have restrictions on the use of the bulbs by underage kids, find out why.