Despite Their Continued Popularity, Tanning Beds Still Increase Your Risk Of Skin Cancer

It’s long been known that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health and can greatly increase your risk of cancer. The same sentiment has been known about tanning beds, or tanning beds, and their links to an increased risk of skin cancer. 

Despite this knowledge, people still smoke, and people still use tanning beds to get tan, and the data shows they use them more often than one may think. 

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“I assumed commercial sunbeds were becoming déclassé, but a new survey commissioned by tanning brand Vita Liberata for its campaign Not the Way to Glow has shown there’s still a mountain to climb,” wrote Sali Hughes, a resident beauty columnist for the Guardian.

Hughes reported that one in three women living in Great Britain use indoor tanning beds, and of that population 91% say that they understand and acknowledge the risk of exposure to UV radiation, which can increase one’s risk of developing skin cancer; including melanoma which is the most deadly kind. 

In fact, the World Health Organization officially classifies tanning beds as being just as dangerous as asbestos exposure and smoking cigarettes. They reported that those who have used the beds frequently have a 20% greater likelihood of developing melanoma. 

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For individuals who use a tanning bed for the first time before the age of 35, their risk actually increases by 59%, according to the WHO. 

“Commercial sunbeds are deathbeds and their blithe presence in tanning salons on British high streets (there are an estimated 5,500 of them) legitimizes them – especially to young people. 

Despite use of sunbeds having been restricted to over-18s across the UK for 12 years, they’re a big draw on TikTok, with 65.5m views for the #tanningsalon hashtag alone,” Hughes pointed out, emphasizing how social media increased the pressure young people feel to conform to modern beauty standards.