Death Rate Among Women More due to Artificial Tanning than Car Accidents

Sunbathing is more dangerous than driving a car, as more people are dying from skin cancer every year than lose their lives in traffic accidents. More women are dying from the disease than men. Experts blame the rise on women using tanning beds, which studies have shown are hotter than the midday Mediterranean sun.

Dr Walayat Hussain, Consultant Dermatologist and head of skin cancer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said, “As a skin cancer specialist, the biggest worry is that the rates of skin cancer are on the increase and the largest contributor to this is UV exposure.”

One of the greatest risk factors for those under the age of 35 for developing the most serious type of skin cancer, melanoma, is exposure to these rays from UV tanning devices (sunbeds).

In 2012 there were 25% more deaths from skin cancers than road accidents. In the UK there are 2,148 annual skin cancer deaths from melanomas, skin cancers that can spread to other organs in the body compared to the 1,713 people who died in road traffic deaths.

An estimated 86% of skin cancer cases are caused by exposure to ultra violet radiation, according to Cancer Research UK research.

One indoor tanning session can increase a person’s risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma, abnormal growth of cells in squamous cells, which are in the upper layers of skin, by 67 percent.

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It can increase their risk of developing basal cell carcinoma, growths in the skin’s basal cells, which line the deepest layer of the epidermis by 29 percent.

Source-Medindia