Cancer experts have put tanning beds and other ultraviolet radiation sources into the top cancer risk category.  The experts state that tanning beds are as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.  Read more on this story below!

This latest study should scare many of you “fake baker’s” out there. The tanning beds, which were long  considered to cause cancer have now been compared to the poison arsenic.

In 20 studies, researchers discovered the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30.

Tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, classified alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.

The cancer research study was published online in the medical journal Lancet Oncology on Wednesday, by experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon.

“People need to be reminded of the risks of sunbeds,” said Vincent Cogliano, one of the cancer researchers. “We hope the prevailing culture will change so teens don’t think they need to use sunbeds to get a tan.”

The lights used in tanning beds give off mainly ultraviolet radiation, which cause skin and eye cancer, according to the International Agency for Cancer Research.

The classification of tanning beds as carcinogenic was disputed by Kathy Banks, chief executive of The Sunbed Association, a European trade association of tanning bed makers and operators.

“The fact that is continuously ignored is that there is no proven link between the responsible use of sunbeds and skin cancer,” Banks said in a statement. She said most users of tanning beds use them less than 20 times a year.

But the use of tanning beds has increased dramatically among people under age 30, and doctors have seen a parallel rise in the numbers of young people with skin cancer. In Britain, melanoma, the deadliest kind of skin cancer, is now the leading cancer diagnosed in women in their twenties.

Studies have found younger people who regularly use tanning beds are eight times more likely to get melanoma. In the past, the World Health Organization warned people younger than 18 to stay away from tanning beds.

Cogliano cautioned that ultraviolet radiation is not healthy, whether it comes from a tanning bed or from the sun. The American Cancer Society advises people to try bronzing or self-tanning creams instead of tanning beds.

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