Tanning bed use linked to melanoma risk

I realize this is sort of obvious, but hopefully it will persuade someone to ease up on the tanning beds.

People with melanoma are more likely than those without it to have visited an indoor tanning salon, researchers find. The report, posted online May 27 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is the latest in a host of studies linking indoor tanning to cancer (SN: 2/23/02, p. 126). Many earlier studies, however, lacked information on the kind of ultraviolet rays people got while tanning indoors, the dose they received and the type of skin tone they had, says DeAnn Lazovich, [cq]a cancer epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, who coauthored the new report. Lazovich and her colleagues sent questionnaires to Minnesota adults with melanoma and collected 1,167 responses, which they matched with questionnaires returned by 1,101 randomly selected people who didn’t have melanoma. The researchers then made follow-up calls to record lifestyle habits of each group. They accounted for differences between the patients and the control group in hair color, light skin tone, eye color, frequency of moles, sun exposure, outdoor activities or jobs, sunscreen use, sunburns and any family history of melanoma. People who tried indoor tanning had a 74 percent greater risk of developing melanoma than did those who avoided it, the researchers calculated.

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[edit on 1-6-2010 by Raustin]

To be honest, there was a time that I didnt use my 'safe sun sense'. Those early 20s when u think you're going to live forever...God, I miss those days...lol. I like the way I look with that nice glow that summer can bring as u spend more of ur day outside but I try to limit that as well.
I've never really understood the tanning bed thing though? Personally, it always looks a bit 'off' to me. Especially when they're realllly dark from too much of it. I know that laying out and tanning should achieve the same results but I see a difference.
Not only will it age u significantly, making u look leathery it's suuuuper old. It raises your risk of skin cancer by surpressing your skins natural defenses, making u more vulnerable to disease in general. It can cause irreparable damage to your eyes. Eye cancer!! I'm liking my eyes just he way they are, seeings always nice too.
I'm bothered when I see parents allow their young girls, sometimes pre-teens tan.Theyre putting their children in danger, making them more susceptable to cancer, to death. It gives them the false sense of maturity and feeds into the superficiality of looks as opposed to health.
Tanning beds....blech.