Unfortunately, Indoor tanning remains a persistent part of American adolescence. As a consequence, it has become a serious public health concern.
The New York Times published a article today entitled, “Warning: That Tan Could Be Hazardous.” To summarize, the article makes the case that indoor tanning is a “serious public health concern.”
Here are the Top 10 Takeways from the article:
- According to a recent study by researchers at the University of Miami, there are more indoor tanning salons in Florida than there are McDonalds, CVS Pharmacies, or Bank of American branches.
- A review of the scientific evidence published last year estimated that tanning beds account for as many as 400,000 cases of skin cancer in the United States each year, including 6,000 cases of melanoma, the deadliest form.
- The incidence rate of melanoma in women under 40 has risen by a third since the early 1990s according to data from the National Cancer Institute.
- The Obama administration’s 2010 health care law imposed a little-noticed 10 percent tax on tanning salons.
- More than 40 states now have some sort of restriction on the use of tanning salons by minors, according to AIM at Melanoma, an advocacy and research group based in California, the first state to adopt a ban on minors in 2011.
- There were about 14,000 salons across the country as of early 2014, according to John Overstreet, executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association.
- The problem with indoor tanning, researchers say, is that many of those who do it, do it a lot. The federal government has collected data on tanning among high school students only since 2009, but researchers were surprised at the findings: Among those who used tanning beds, more than half had used them 10 times or more in the past year, according to Dr. Guy.
- A panel of experts convened by the World Health Organization found in 2009 that the use of sun beds before age 30 was associated with a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma. A 2012 study found a 15 percent increase in the risk of certain skin cancers with every four sessions in a tanning bed before age 35.
- About half the country’s top 125 colleges have tanning beds on campus or in off-campus housing, University of Massachusetts medical school researchers reported in October.
- The C.D.C.’s national youth survey found that indoor tanning often goes along with binge drinking and unhealthy weight-control practices.
If you or a loved one have been injured by indoor tanning salons, please contact the attorneys at Thompson & Tredennick.