NO TAN IS WORTH YOUR LIFE! - Ban tanning beds in UK
NO TAN IS WORTH YOUR LIFE! - Ban tanning beds in UK
The Issue
You want to feel healthy, more attractive and confident and think sunbeds will help? Think again! The price for the perfect summer glow is high. Whatever your age, sunbed use increases your risk of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. 7 people in the UK die every day of Skin cancer. There are around 16,700 new melanoma skin cancer cases in the UK every year, that's 46 every day! Did you know that there are more than 7,000 sunbed salons in Britain which are helping the melanoma cases to rise?, with some offering sessions for as little as 50p a minute!
The binge-tanning epidemic amongst young women in this country has propelled malignant melanoma above cervical cancer, making this deadliest form of skin cancer the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in their 20s for the first time. You can ask Kassandra Barker, a regular sunbed user: “Since I was around 2 years old I always had a very prominent mole on my wrist. The mole was never an issue, never irritated me or caused me any pain and it never changed. Last year around October I decided I wanted to have it checked. After watching someone else’s video discussing their issue, I just had this overwhelming feeling. Unfortunately I had to lie to my GP as this was the only way of getting an appointment. All of the information on the NHS website only recommends getting moles checked if they have changed or if they’re causing pain. Mine didn’t, I just had that feeling. After my initial telephone appointment I was called in for a face to face. The nurse did the typical ABCDE check for my moles and told me I needed to be referred to a dermatologist. Roughly a week later I saw the dermatologist and he was unsure what it was and if it was even a mole so he decided to do a see and treat and take it off that same day for a biopsy (07/11/2020). I was told I’d have my results just before Christmas. On the 23rd of December when I still hadn’t heard anything I decided to call up. The woman on the phone was shocked that I hadn’t been contacted and that I should have been weeks ago. They needed me in for an emergency appointment on Christmas Eve. You have melanoma. What a Christmas present! With those results I had to go back for a second operation In February. This time a deeper and wider incision to check the surrounding area for cancer. After about 4/5 months of waiting I was finally told that my results came back fine. The cancer had gone! After being diagnosed with melanoma, you have to stay under the hospital surveillance for a while for them to keep an eye on your body and new moles or old ones changing. So three months later there I am again being told another 3 need to come off. I’m now 3 weeks post op, still on crutches as one of the moles was on the sole of my foot. Completely unable to work, exercise, or do really anything that I love. I’m still waiting for results today and there is nothing more stressful. I used to use sunbeds once a week, I used to use oil and I really wish I had educated myself before making those choices.”
As you could read above, using sunbeds is not a safe way to get a tan. It exposes your skin to large amounts of UV rays that age your skin and increase your risk of skin cancer by 59%. Regular sunbed use under the age of 30 increases the risk of skin cancer by an alarming 75%! Even one sunbed session can increase your risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer by 67% and basal cell skin cancer by 29%. Over the last decade, the number of people diagnosed with melanoma in the UK has increased by almost half. and melanoma is now the 5th most common cancer in the UK.
Moreover, each melanoma case averaged a cost of £44,796. Banning tanning beds could save an estimated £4.4 billion in health costs and £30 billion in lost work, a study predicted. Being indoor tanning a voluntary, modifiable behaviors with minimal to no health benefits, it will mean that by banning tanning beds the cases will reduce and that money currently spent in melanoma treatments due to tanning beds could be used to treat other types of cancer and reduce the waiting time to be treated in the NHS.
A study published by JAMA Dermatology "International Prevalence of Indoor Tanning - A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." The number of skin cancer cases due to tanning is higher than the number of lung cancer cases due to smoking, which is alarming! What can we do to ensure we stop the cases rising? Both indoor tanning and smoking are voluntary, modifiable behaviors with minimal to no health benefits. Both are also significant problems among young persons. Therefore, we should learn from the public health efforts geared toward reducing smoking and apply these lessons to reducing indoor tanning. Approaches that have been successful for tobacco prevention should be implemented and tailored to reduce indoor tanning exposure, including advertising bans, taxation, and broader policies that facilitate public education and changing social norm. In 2010 the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act made it illegal for people under the age of 18 to use sunbeds. Anyone with a sunbed business is committing an offence if they offer tanning services to people under the age of 18. However, all of this is just not enough.
It has been proven with tobacco, that video campaigns and showing pictures of the terrible effects of smoking, does not stop people buying cigarettes and smoking. If we want to ensure we stop the cases of skin cancer due to sunbeds, we should be joining the list of countries that have banned this practice.
References:
Canceresearchuk.org
Cancer.ie
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/1818976
42
The Issue
You want to feel healthy, more attractive and confident and think sunbeds will help? Think again! The price for the perfect summer glow is high. Whatever your age, sunbed use increases your risk of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer. 7 people in the UK die every day of Skin cancer. There are around 16,700 new melanoma skin cancer cases in the UK every year, that's 46 every day! Did you know that there are more than 7,000 sunbed salons in Britain which are helping the melanoma cases to rise?, with some offering sessions for as little as 50p a minute!
The binge-tanning epidemic amongst young women in this country has propelled malignant melanoma above cervical cancer, making this deadliest form of skin cancer the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in their 20s for the first time. You can ask Kassandra Barker, a regular sunbed user: “Since I was around 2 years old I always had a very prominent mole on my wrist. The mole was never an issue, never irritated me or caused me any pain and it never changed. Last year around October I decided I wanted to have it checked. After watching someone else’s video discussing their issue, I just had this overwhelming feeling. Unfortunately I had to lie to my GP as this was the only way of getting an appointment. All of the information on the NHS website only recommends getting moles checked if they have changed or if they’re causing pain. Mine didn’t, I just had that feeling. After my initial telephone appointment I was called in for a face to face. The nurse did the typical ABCDE check for my moles and told me I needed to be referred to a dermatologist. Roughly a week later I saw the dermatologist and he was unsure what it was and if it was even a mole so he decided to do a see and treat and take it off that same day for a biopsy (07/11/2020). I was told I’d have my results just before Christmas. On the 23rd of December when I still hadn’t heard anything I decided to call up. The woman on the phone was shocked that I hadn’t been contacted and that I should have been weeks ago. They needed me in for an emergency appointment on Christmas Eve. You have melanoma. What a Christmas present! With those results I had to go back for a second operation In February. This time a deeper and wider incision to check the surrounding area for cancer. After about 4/5 months of waiting I was finally told that my results came back fine. The cancer had gone! After being diagnosed with melanoma, you have to stay under the hospital surveillance for a while for them to keep an eye on your body and new moles or old ones changing. So three months later there I am again being told another 3 need to come off. I’m now 3 weeks post op, still on crutches as one of the moles was on the sole of my foot. Completely unable to work, exercise, or do really anything that I love. I’m still waiting for results today and there is nothing more stressful. I used to use sunbeds once a week, I used to use oil and I really wish I had educated myself before making those choices.”
As you could read above, using sunbeds is not a safe way to get a tan. It exposes your skin to large amounts of UV rays that age your skin and increase your risk of skin cancer by 59%. Regular sunbed use under the age of 30 increases the risk of skin cancer by an alarming 75%! Even one sunbed session can increase your risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer by 67% and basal cell skin cancer by 29%. Over the last decade, the number of people diagnosed with melanoma in the UK has increased by almost half. and melanoma is now the 5th most common cancer in the UK.
Moreover, each melanoma case averaged a cost of £44,796. Banning tanning beds could save an estimated £4.4 billion in health costs and £30 billion in lost work, a study predicted. Being indoor tanning a voluntary, modifiable behaviors with minimal to no health benefits, it will mean that by banning tanning beds the cases will reduce and that money currently spent in melanoma treatments due to tanning beds could be used to treat other types of cancer and reduce the waiting time to be treated in the NHS.
A study published by JAMA Dermatology "International Prevalence of Indoor Tanning - A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." The number of skin cancer cases due to tanning is higher than the number of lung cancer cases due to smoking, which is alarming! What can we do to ensure we stop the cases rising? Both indoor tanning and smoking are voluntary, modifiable behaviors with minimal to no health benefits. Both are also significant problems among young persons. Therefore, we should learn from the public health efforts geared toward reducing smoking and apply these lessons to reducing indoor tanning. Approaches that have been successful for tobacco prevention should be implemented and tailored to reduce indoor tanning exposure, including advertising bans, taxation, and broader policies that facilitate public education and changing social norm. In 2010 the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act made it illegal for people under the age of 18 to use sunbeds. Anyone with a sunbed business is committing an offence if they offer tanning services to people under the age of 18. However, all of this is just not enough.
It has been proven with tobacco, that video campaigns and showing pictures of the terrible effects of smoking, does not stop people buying cigarettes and smoking. If we want to ensure we stop the cases of skin cancer due to sunbeds, we should be joining the list of countries that have banned this practice.
References:
Canceresearchuk.org
Cancer.ie
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/1818976
42
Petition Updates
Share this petition
Petition created on 21 November 2021