Sunbed use in spotlight as skin cancer soars
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sunbed use in spotlight as skin cancer soars*
By Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:16am GMT 02/12/2007
Tanning salons face a major crackdown as ministers redouble their
efforts to tackle Britain's soaring skin cancer problem.
The Government is to order an investigation into the use of tanning
booths with a view to introducing tougher regulations to deter people,
particularly teenagers, from using them.
Incidences of skin cancer are rising more rapidly in Britain than any
other form of the disease. Cases of malignant melanoma, the most
dangerous kind, have doubled in 15 years, with almost 9,000 diagnosed
annually, and close to 2,000 deaths.
The investigation will look at how many teenagers are using sunbeds, and
whether the introduction of coin-operated booths and unsupervised salons
means that so-called "tanorexics", people hooked on having a tan, are
able to use the facilities with lethal regularity. Current guidance says
under-16s should not be allowed to use the beds, but there are no laws
backing the advice. In June, Zita Farrelly, 29, from Salford in Greater
Manchester, died from skin cancer after using a sunbed twice daily from
the age of 14.
Ministers will order the probe as they publish the Government's
blueprint on cancer services which will admit that UK survival rates lag
behind those in Europe. The Cancer Reform Strategy will also admit that
Britain spends £80 per head on cancer care, compared with £121 in France
and £143 in Germany.
A ban on cigarette vending machines and stronger health warnings on
cigarette packets will be proposed to cut the number of lung cancer
cases. The Government will also pledge £130 million investment in
radiotherapy to support a new target that no one should wait longer than
a month for the treatment by 2010. More than four million patients now
wait more than a month.
The use of sunbeds has risen by more than a third in the last decade.
Four out of five booths emitted ultraviolet radiation at levels above
European and British standards, UK research showed in July, with the
average unit carrying the same risk as midday Mediterranean sun.
Evidence has been reported that young skin is particularly vulnerable to
sun damage. The World Health Organisation says under-18s should not use
sunbeds, while a poll by the British Association of Dermatologists this
week found 75 percent felt tanning booths should be banned outright.
Gill Perkins, from the Sunbed Association, which represents a quarter of
commercial sunbed operators, said her members, concerned by the rise in
unstaffed booths, would welcome further industry regulation.