Skin Cancer Spikes

 At least 170,000 cases of skin cancer each year are linked to indoor tanning, according to an analysis published online Tuesday in the British medical journal BMJ.

Those cancers include basal-cell carcinomas and squamous-cell carcinomas, two common types of non-melanoma skin cancers that aren't usually life-threatening, the study says. People who have ever used indoor tanning are 29% more likely to develop basal-cell carcinomas than those who have never used tanning salons, it adds.

Indoor tanners are 67% more likely to develop the more serious squamous-cell carcinomas compared with those who have never tanned indoors, says Eleni Linos, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of California-San Francisco and senior author of the study.

This has been predicted, and coming to pass.  A huge number of tanning salons have sprung up, and minors and adults alike have bronzed to the point of ruining their skin.  Tanning mom Patricia Krentcil is an extreme but not unheard of leatherfaced victim of tanning too much.  I see women a decade younger than me with wrinkles I don't have.  And as long as I use sunscreen and moisturizer, likely never will.

I am the color of biscuit dough.  My arms look pale until you see them across my stomach, and then they look like bronzed walnut.  I could use more sun, but I've seen enough skin cancer in my family to keep me indoors.  Native American on one side, Euro-mutt on the other.  Me British roots is showin' or something like that.

Anyway, it's time to protect minors and be realistic about the risks of tanning.  Or, if you're the executive director of the Indoor Tanning Association John Overstreet, you can just tell us how we're being wimps for noticing that cancer that keeps cropping up.

"UV exposure, whether from the sun or a sunbed, has many benefits," Overstreet says. "As with most human activities, there are also risks. It seems the risks continue to grab the headlines in the media, while the benefits remain unnoticed and unpromoted."