Melanomas rising, mostly among young women

Planning to head to a tanning salon to beef up your bronze look for prom and graduation, or to get a head start on beach season? Young people might want to reconsider. A dramatic rise in skin cancer rates among young adults is leading health officials to shed light on the risk factors, specifically tanning salons, which women are more likely to use. Women under the age of 40 are hit hardest by the escalating incidence of melanoma, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Researchers examined records from a decades-long history in patients 18-39 from 1970 to 2009. Melanoma cases increased eightfold among women in that time and three-fold for men.
“We need to get away from the idea that skin cancer is an older person’s disease,” says report co-author Jerry Brewer, a dermatologist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

According to the National Institutes of Health, excess exposure to ultraviolet light increases risk for all skin cancers. UV light is invisible radiation that can damage DNA in the skin and can be generated by the sun, sunlamps and tanning beds. People with fair skin are at higher risk. Fair skin has less pigment to protect the body from UV radiation. Other risk factors include:

---One of more severe sunburns as a child
---An unusual number of moles
---A family history of melanoma
---An exposure to UV light

The possibility of skin cancer might seem remote to young people, but it is not. “The people most affected are not just Baby Boomers but actually young adults,” says Kavita Mariwalla, director of dermatological surgery at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Tanning before prom or big events has become a “norm” for many teenagers. What they don’t know is that each time they visit a tanning booth, their risk of skin cancer rises.”

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We know that ultraviolet radiation is linked to cancer, so avoid exposure to it. The most recent research shows that there is no such thing as a healthy tan.

Please let you employees know about the dangers of the sun’s damaging rays, as well as the increased dangers of tanning beds. Remember, a large part of living a healthy lifestyle is also in the prevention of major diseases, and skin cancer is one of them.


Bobby Bland PWCA, CIC
Commercial Risk Service