Tanning Beds

By Trevor Shewfelt, Pharmacist at the Dauphin Clinic Pharmacy

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The information in this article is intended as a helpful guide only. It is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice. If you have any questions about your medications and what is right for you see your doctor, pharmacist or other health care professional.

A few years ago, I was volunteering with Kinsmen to work at Safe Grad. We were working at the bar. I remember some of the female Grads coming up to the bar who were very tanned. Now remember high school graduation is in June, so there isn't a lot of time to tan outside before the event. I remember one young lady in particular had very dark, dry and wrinkly looking skin. I commented to one of the other volunteers that at 18 she already had the skin of a 40 year old. We assumed she had over done it on a tanning bed. It seems the World Health Organization says that use of tanning beds by young people does worse things than cause wrinkles. It can lead to skin cancer.

The WHO has a group called the International Agency for Research on Cancer or IARC. At the end of July the IARC moved UV tanning beds to its highest risk category –Group 1- “carcinogenic to humans.” Other Group 1 compounds include: arsenic, asbestos, and mustard gas. The IARC reported the re-classification in the Lancet Oncology journal. The argument used to be that the UVA light in tanning beds was safer than the UVA, and UVB light in sunshine. The IARC now calls UVA a Group 1 carcinogen and says that it should be avoided.

The IARC also says a specific group of people in particular should avoid tanning beds. It says if you first use a tanning bed before the age of 30, there is an associated 75% increase in melanoma risk. Melanoma is a type of skin cancer. So it is recommended that young people avoid UV tanning beds.

I found this report about tanning beds especially interesting. You see earlier this year, the Canadian Dermatology Association said Canadians born in the 1990’s are two to three time more likely to get skin cancer in their lifetimes compared to those born in the 1960’s. This report didn’t make any sense to me. It’s not that I didn’t believe it, the Canadian Dermatology Association are the Canadian skin experts, but it didn’t make sense. If I think about my childhood, we rarely wore sunscreen, never wore hats, got sun burnt at the beginning of every summer and spent lots of time outside. If I look at my children, they always have sunscreen and hats on, and if I do everything I am supposed to as a parent, they may never get a sun burn. Since there are more computers, video screens and since unlike my parents I am too scared to just send my kids out on their bikes unsupervised, they don’t spend as much time outside as I did. Why would my children (if the trend holds) be more likely to get skin cancer than me? You would think they should be more protected.

Well, there are probably lots of reasons the rate of skin cancer is increasing. The ozone may be thinner, doctors may be better now at diagnosing skin cancer or there may be other confounding factors that haven’t been thought of yet. I wonder if a big reason for the increase in skin cancer in those born in the 1990’s are tanning beds. I don’t remember anyone going to a tanning bed before my high school graduation. Now it seems to be almost a requirement. In addition to the IARC saying early exposure to a tanning bed increases your melanoma risk, the national institutes of health in the US published a study last year. The NIH found that the melanoma rates among young women in the United States tripled between 1973 and 2004. We don’t know for certain this is due to tanning beds, but there are suspicions.

So, before the users and owners of tanning beds shoot the messenger, are there any upsides to them? Well, arguably getting UV radiation exposure helps your skin produce Vitamin D. We need Vitamin D and Canadians are often Vitamin D deficient. I guess the problem is if you get that Vitamin D through the use of a tanning bed at 17, will you be rewarded with skin cancer at 47? Would it be safer to get Vitamin D by eating more oily fish or taking a Vitamin D pill? You will have to make that call. Just remember the next time you see someone who seems to have over done it at the tanning salon, they may be getting more than wrinkles.

As always if you have any questions or concerns about these or other products, ask your pharmacist.