Addressing the risks of indoor tanning

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event Wednesday co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy!

It is not the kind of selfie we usually expect to see on Facebook. A young woman looks forlornly away from the camera, her face covered from top to bottom with bloody scabs—the result of treatment for skin cancer. The therapy is aggressive; but it is necessary, because at the age of just 27, Tawny Willoughby has had carcinoma six times. Almost every time she sees the dermatologist, she has to have more cancerous tissue removed. By posting her painful photo on Facebook, Tawny hopes to save others from a similar fate. At the time of writing, the image has already been shared almost 70,000 times.

Tawny’s risk of developing skin cancer was greatly increased by her frequent use of a tanning bed. Research published in the British Medical Journal links indoor tanning to more than 170,000 cases of skin cancer in the U.S. every year. People who start using tanning devices when they are young are in still greater danger. A panel of experts at the World Health Organization found that using a tanning bed before the age of 35 was linked with a 75 percent increase in the risk of melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Melanoma risk is six times higher for those who have undergone ten or more tanning sessions by age 30. With each use of a tanning device, the danger becomes more acute.

Things could have gone even worse for Tawny Willoughby. Another young woman, Brandi Dickey, a frequent indoor tanner from the age of 14, died last year at 33 after melanoma spread to her brain. Tragically, Brandi was not alone—this form of skin cancer kills more than 8,000 Americans every year.

Real stories from victims and their families are one of the keys to raising awareness of the dangers of indoor tanning. More understanding is clearly needed. One young woman quoted in an article on tanning published in the New York Times in January dismissed the risk, saying, “If I get skin cancer I’ll deal with it then. I can’t think about that now. I’m going to die of something.”

Salons, and the tanning industry as a whole, frequently downplay the risks. Four years ago, I was involved in a congressional investigation that found that 90 percent of tanning salons denied that their services presented a danger to health. They called evidence of a link between tanning and skin cancer “rumor,” “hype,” and “a big myth.”

Thankfully, there are steps we can take to minimize the risk to young people.

First, we can restrict access to indoor tanning by minors, as the World Health Organization has recommended. At least 41 U.S. states regulate the use of tanning facilities by minors. Nine have banned their use altogether by anyone under the age of 18.

We need action on a national level, too. Together with congressional colleagues, I have long been pushing the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates tanning devices, to clamp down on their use by children. Almost exactly a year ago, the FDA issued an order requiring tanning devices to obtain clearance prior to being sold, and mandating a visible black-outlined warning on each device, stating explicitly that they should not be used by those under the age of 18.

This is a positive move that will save lives. Now, I am pressuring the FDA to go further and impose an outright ban on minors using these products.

Secondly, we can target the widespread use of sunbeds on college campuses. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts Medical School found that around half of the top 125 colleges in the U.S. had tanning beds on campus or in off-campus student housing. Another study, by the American Academy of Dermatology, found that 18 of the country’s top 100 colleges allowed students to use their university debit card to pay for sessions at tanning salons. As the authors concluded, “these agreements constitute an endorsement and even encourage indoor tanning.”

We need to bring pressure to bear on colleges to stop allowing students to use sponsored debit cards and discounts for tanning. As a result of letters I sent along with colleagues, at least two colleges on the list, the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh, have agreed to drop tanning salons from their debit card programs. And if we keep up the pressure, I hope others will follow.

People need to see tanning beds for what they are: like cigarettes, they are essentially carcinogen-delivery devices. When survivors and families tell their stories, the risks become real. That is why it is so important to hear from courageous young people like Tawny Willoughby. As Tawny herself wrote in the caption to her graphic photo: “If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here ya go… Don’t let tanning prevent you from seeing your children grow up.” I think that says it all.

Rosa DeLauro represents Connecticut’s Third District, which stretches from the Long Island Sound and New Haven to the Naugatuck Valley and Waterbury. Rosa serves in the Democratic leadership as co-chair of the Steering and Policy Committee, and she is the ranking member on the Labor, Health, Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, where she oversees our country’s investments in education, health, and employment. She formerly served as the Chairwoman of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which is responsible for funding the USDA and FDA.

SOURCE: Disruptive Women in Health Care – Read entire story here.