Tanning Beds Are As Dangerous As Arsenic!

Filed Under: Icky Icky Poo

Tanning salon enthusiasts, listen up!

The Associated Press is reporting that cancer experts have reassessed the danger of tanning beds and the results are not good. They are likening the cancer risk from tanning beds to arsenic and mustard gas. Yikes!!

Fake baking now joins tobacco, hepatitis B, and chimney sweeping on the list of known causes of cancer.

A new analysis of about 20 studies makes clear that the risk of skin cancer jumps a whopping 75% when people start using tanning beds before age 30. And, while scientists had previously thought that only one type of ultraviolet radiation was lethal, not so, as it turns out: in studies, all types of ultraviolet radiation caused scary mutations in mice, confirming that all ultraviolet radiation are carcinogens. UV radiation is used in tanning beds and is now known to cause skin and eye cancer.

Eye cancer?! Super scary.

What's more, as use of tanning beds has increased over the years in people under 30, and a recent study in Britain shows that melanoma (the deadliest skin cancer of all), which historically is most prevalent in people over 75, is now the leading cancer diagnosed in women in their 20s.

Holy freakin moly. This is seriously scary. Stay out of the tanning beds, bbs! Cancer is not something to mess with. And besides, no one looks good orange, anyway.

And just as a friendly reminder from the American Cancer Association - remember that all types of ultraviolet exposure can lead to cancer, so wear sunscreen when you hit the beaches, too!

[Image via Getty Images.]

Posted: July 29, 2009 at 1:58 pm