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Why Skin Cancer Is on the Rise    
Indoor and outdoor tanning can be dangerous, because the same ultraviolet radiation that provokes a tan also damages DNA. In fact, exposure to the mid-day sun can produce as many as 40,000 DNA errors an hour, said Regina Santella, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York.  
 :question:  :buggedout:  :bluesad:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100620/sc_livescience/whyskincancerisontherise (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100620/sc_livescience/whyskincancerisontherise)   

For years and years now, millions of sun worshippers across the country would hit the beaches during summer to work on the perfect, golden tan. However, the advent of indoor tanning salons now allows Americans to sport a sun-kissed look year-round. And as more and more people pursue a perpetual summer-style tan, dermatologists have begun noticing a significant rise in skin cancer incidents, especially among young women.

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, still makes up just 3 percent of all skin cancers, and results in about 8,000 deaths a year, according to the National Cancer Institute. But three factors have doctors alarmed: The rates of this cancer are rising; it has become the most common cancer for young people; and many of the cases result from the preventable, but addictive, behavior of indoor suntanning.

"In the last few decades, it's certainly been on the rise. And some people think that may be a result of behavior, and UV exposure," said Jennifer Stein, an assistant professor of dermatology at New York University's Langone Medical Center. "This is a very serious cancer, and this is a behavior that's preventable."

Tanning and cancer go hand-in-hand

Without tanning beds, soaking up the rays was limited to clear days in the summer. The invention of the tanning bed changed that, and throughout the 1990s, the rapid proliferation of tanning salons provided venues for millions of people to sunbathe regardless of weather, season, or time of day.

Since 1992, the indoor tanning industry has grown five-fold, with 28 million indoor tanners in the United States supporting a billion-dollar-a-year business, said Maria Tsoukas, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

During that same period, melanoma rates have increased by 2 percent in the general population, Stein said. Amongst young women, who make up 71 percent of tanning salon customers, incidents of melanoma have increased by 2.2 percent, Stein said. Over that time, skin cancer also became the most common form of cancer for Americans ages 25-29, a group that traditionally shows very low cancer rates, Stein said... 

I burned more than a few times when I was young so when I go out today, I wear longsleeves, a hat, long pants, and plenty of sunscreen on my face - I can spend a whole day on the lake, in the water, and not be burned when it's all over.  I look like a dork, but at least I'm not deep fried!

As a youngster I used to get fried a deep golden brown every summer. Now I have regular visits to a dermatologist to get little cancers burned off my face, arms, legs, chest, etc. Now I use lots and lots of sunblock when I go outside, including trips to the beach.

A 'healthy tan' has got to be the most contradictory phrase in the English language!

I can't figure some women.  My wife has a sister that has done the tan thing for decades and her skin looks like one of those rotisserie chickens you buy at the grocery store, it's made a few turns too many.

The damage to your skin alone should be enough to scare anybody away from this. 

Sometimes I wonder whether looking at the figures just straight is a good way of thinking about it: sometimes you find that these 'cancer on the rise' figures are mainly due to better and more accurate testing and more awareness leading to more people getting tested and then hey hey, surprise surprise we get a bigger figure.

I suppose I'm not so fussed: Skin cancer has been a big issue in my country for as long as I can remember, so we all know what is the right thing to do to protect yourself regardless:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcJMlPDediY

My husband has had 2 skin cancers spots removed and several on his face burned off. The ones on his face keep coming back. I'm a red head with very pale skin so I always use sunscreen when I go out. When We lived in FL we would go to the beach and see these women who had skin like leather from laying out so much. Gross.

I never use tanning beds. Just walking around outside and doing work outdoors (with sunscreen, of course) during the summer is enough to give me the kind of skin tone that people who frequent tanning beds would die for (except that it's a farmer's tan. Wearing t-shirts while you garden will do that). Is it as deep as theirs? No. But it looks healthy, not orange, crispy or leathery.

There is one advantage to a natural tan, however: parts of you that are tanned are less likely to get sunburned.

We lived in Florida for 2 years and I remember the "leather ladies" too.   We quickly adapted to wearing sunscreen and hats all the time.  And always drank lots of water too.