Cancer experts and campaigners say that sunbeds pose such a high risk that they should be banned in the UK. They are calling on ministers to close the many tanning salons in the country, and, if necessary, use public funds to compensate owners.
Commercial sunbeds pose such a high risk of causing skin cancer, and the ban on under-18s using them is so often ignored, that they should be banned entirely. They made their case in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
“An immediate outright ban on commercial sunbeds alongside public education offers the most cost-effective solution to reduce skin cancer, save lives and ease the burden on the NHS,” they say.
Those making the call includes experts from the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester, campaigners from charity Melanoma Focus, and an Australian skin cancer specialist who helped persuade the government there to ban them in 2016.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part of the World Health Organisation (WHO), declared in 2009 that exposure to ultraviolet radiation is carcinogenic to humans, causing melanoma and other forms of skin cancer.
Melanoma is Britain’s fifth most common cancer. 17,600 new diagnoses and 2,700 deaths are reported annually. It has seen rates increasing, a trend that is expected to continue by 2040, largely due to people taking a holiday in hot and sunny places.
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