A new study points to indoor tanning as a cause for melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer, particularly among young sunbed users.  Overall, there was a 20% increased risk for melanoma with any indooor tanning, according to Mathieu Boniol, PhD, of the International Prevention Research institute in Lyon, France, and colleagues.   The risk nearly doubled when sunbed use began before age 35.

“Powerful ultraviolet tanning units may be 10 to 15 times stronger than the midday sunlight on the Mediterranean Sea, and repeated exposure to large amounts of ultraviolet A delivered to the skin in relatively short periods (typically 10 to 20 minutes) constitutes a new experience for humans,” Boniol’s group observed.

The last meta-analysis on risk of melanoma with indoor tanning was conducted in 2006. It showed an increased risk, but no dose-response could be identified.  Since that time considerably more data have been published, so Boniol and colleagues performed an updated meta-analysis that included 27 studies and 11,428 cases of melanoma from 18 countries in western and northern Europe...Read about the rest of this study and about its findings in young people on the Institute for Women's Health Research Blog.