Sunbeds ranked alongside cigarettes as cancer risk

Skin cancer cases overall have more than doubled in the last decade, with 70,000 Britons diagnosed each year. Photo: GETTY

Sunbeds have been categorised as "carcinogenic to humans" by the World Health Organistation, putting them on the same level as cigarettes as a major cause of cancer

The move also ranks them alongside alcohol and asbestos.

Previously the use of sunbeds and sunlamps had been classififed as "probably carcinogenic", placing them in the second group of the most dangerous products in terms of cancer risk.

But a meeting of 20 scientists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, the WHO's leading source for information about the disease, decided to upgrade the risk of sunbeds and the ultraviolet radiation (UV) they emit after reviewing recent studies.

Writing in The Lancet Oncology, Dr Fatiha El Ghissassi and colleagues said: "The use of UV-emitting tanning devices is widespread in many developed countries, especially among young women.

"A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that the risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75 per cent when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age.

"Additionally, several case control studies provide consistent evidence of a positive association between the use of UV-emitting tanning devices and ocular melanoma (skin cancer of the eyelid).

"Therefore, the Working Group raised the classification of the use of UV-emitting tanning devices to Group 1, -'carcinogenic to humans'."

The move follows research earlier this year that found the deadliest form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer among British women in their 20s.

The Cancer Research UK figures from 2005 - the latest available - show that 338 women aged between 20 and 29 were diagnosed with melanoma, compared with 298 for cervical cancer.

Cases of melanoma have increased by a third since 2003, when there were 220 cases, compared with 270 for cervical cancer.

Skin cancer cases overall have more than doubled in the last decade, with 70,000 Britons diagnosed each year.

Nina Goad, of the British Association of Dermatologists, said: "It is high time that steps were taken to regulate the industry, to prevent children using sunbeds, and to ensure that sunbeds are subject to health warnings like other known carcinogens.

"At the moment, many salons are free to advertise somewhat spurious health 'benefits' of using sunbeds, but offer no advice on health risks. Hopefully, categorising sunbeds as a known carcinogen will prompt the government to introduce compulsory health warnings on tanning beds."

Kathy Banks, chief executive of the Sunbed Association, the industry body, said there is no proven link between the "responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer" and said most users are aware of the risks of too much UV radiation and plan their sessions accordingly.