Experts are concerned about a resurgence in the popularity of tanning among young adults as social media has helped tanning in general make a comeback, the AP reports. A video of a girl sharing her "tanning secrets" and showing off a bikini tan line has racked up more than 11 million views, while people in the comments joke, "The earth probably won't last long anyway, I'd rather go out tan than pale." More than 100,000 new melanomas will be diagnosed in the US in 2026, and about 8,500 people are expected to die from the potentially life-threatening skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Even more worrisome, some influencers are encouraging the use of tanning beds.
Dr. Pedram Gerami and his team at Northwestern University's medical school sought to find out what was happening at a cellular level with tanning bed users. They had nearly three times the risk of developing melanoma as those who did not use tanning beds. Gerami took skin samples from tanning bed users and compared them with samples from nonusers. His team examined the DNA sequences of melanocytes, skin cells that can turn into moles, melanoma, or other cancers. When melanocytes are exposed to UV light, they can mutate. Tanning beds can emit more than 10 times as much UV light as the sun. The DNA mutation rate of melanocytes in tanning bed users was more than double that of nonusers whose only exposure to UV is outdoor sun, Gerami said.
The World Health Organization has long classified tanning beds as a cancer-causing agent in the same category as tobacco and asbestos. Using tanning beds before age 20 can increase your chances of developing melanoma by 47%, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. "Tanning is sort of cool again … and all the education about skin cancer and skin aging is sort of taking a backseat for the younger generation," said Dr. Anthony Rossi, a dermatologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. "There's really no such thing as a safe tan."
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