| Sunbed tanning can lead to cancer for fair Sunbed tanning may put fair-skinned people at risk of developing skin cancer from exposure to high-intensity UVA rays, scientists warned Wednesday, with one advising against the practice. "We think that this is a second pathway to melanoma," co-author Edward De Fabo, a photobiologist at the George Washington University in Washington, told AFP. Tanning lamps, said De Fabo, emitted up to 12 times the UVA intensity found in natural sunlight -- made up of about 95 percent UVA and five percent UVB. Asked whether he urged people to stay away from tanning salons, he said: "I would advise them definitely not to go. New safety limits will need to be set, but the specifics required further study, he added. Very dark-skinned people, like those of African origin, very rarely develop melanoma as their skins do not allow the Sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation to penetrate the deeper levels of the epidermis. "The early step in the tanning process is where the real risk lies," he suggested. In tests on shaved lab mice whose results should apply to humans too, UVA interacted with the pigment melanin to cause the most dangerous sort of skin cancer, melanoma, they said. The tans cultivated by fair people, in contrast, offered very little screening. "You have the known UVB pathway (which causes) damage to DNA, and now we are saying that UVA interacting with melanin can cause damage to the DNA and cause melanoma. "A lot of people go to those sun-tanning parlours because they think when they get a base tan they are great to go out in the high intensity sunlight. |
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Sunbed tanning can lead to cancer for fair
