As our two children were growing up, we spent many enjoyable summer days and weeks sailing Puget Sound with little concern about the sun’s deadly effect on our skin.
In September 2002, we lost our daughter, then 34, to melanoma.
Unfortunately, melanoma has very few successful treatments once it has spread. Shelley was a wife, mother of two, daughter and much, much more. She was a perfectly healthy young woman in every way – except for the deadly time bomb of melanoma silently ticking away.
The culture of tanning and “sun-worshipping” must be reversed.
As reported by an Associated Press story printed in The News Tribune on July 29, the International Agency for Cancer Research has concluded definitively that ultraviolet radiation kills. The findings are conclusive, and the question has been answered: Tanning beds cause cancer. The agency’s cancer researchers have concluded that tanning beds and all types of UV radiation are carcinogens as deadly as mustard gas and arsenic.
For years, the Melanoma International Foundation or MIF has publicized the fact that melanoma is the most common cancer killer of young women, with a higher incidence than breast cancer in ages 30 to 34. Definitive research links the use of tanning beds to melanoma.
A startling fact: 15 minutes under a tanning lamp equals a whole day’s exposure at the beach. To prevent melanoma in young women, the MIF offers programs at high schools and colleges geared to rewarding young women who shun the use of tanning beds.
Such programs can be instrumental in creating a long overdue paradigm shift. A beautiful tan is a sign of damage to skin DNA that will often result in cancer.
Tanning (especially under lamps) is easily comparable to another health danger that has finally shifted from glamorous to dangerous: cigarette smoking. We know that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer. The campaign to stop the habit has been widespread. Now we know the same about tanning, yet the public, media and health world haven’t taken a strong stand against it.
The findings reported in the London conference point out that it is now past time to regulate tanning beds. At the very least, there ought to be an age limit for users. One approach might be to limit the use of the beds to those older than 18. Additionally, there must be warning labels conspicuously posted that outline the dangers of ultraviolet radiation and tanning beds.
But let’s not forget the sun.
Excessive sun exposure is the primary factor in developing melanoma. More than 1 million cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year, outnumbering the total number of other cancers combined. There has been a 2,000 percent increase in melanoma incidence since 1930, with one in 50 people now affected. Effective use of sun block, protective clothing and staying out of the sun at high exposure times are good strategies against melanoma.
Self-examination of your skin and examination by your primary care provider can help find melanoma early when it is curable. But despite the ease of skin examination, melanoma is the least-screened form of cancer. People find their own melanoma more frequently than do doctors, and melanoma detection is not a training requirement for most medical disciplines.
Another problem is that top funding agencies for cancer research minimize investing in melanoma treatment research. This year, however, the MIF was able to get $4 million from the Department of Defense allocated to melanoma research.
Melanoma isn’t “just skin cancer.” It is a potentially lethal malignancy that took the life of my daughter. Tanning salons are instrumental in the surge of melanoma deaths among young women. It’s time we recognized melanoma as a dangerous disease to be prevented, found early and cured.
Tacoma architect Peter Rasmussen serves on the advisory board of the Melanoma International Foundation.
On the Web
For more information regarding melanoma and the Melanoma International Foundation, go to www.safefromthesun.org.
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