More Than One in Three Adults Worldwide Using Tanning Beds

iStock/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) — A newly revised Texas law bans indoor tanning for minors as of 2014. In the wake of this news, researchers at the University of California-San Francisco decided to look into data from 88 studies from the past 21 years to see how prevalent indoor tanning, which uses dangerous UV-emitting light sources, is in the U.S., Australia and Northern and Western Europe.  

Overall, the study published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology reported 35.7 percent of all adults had tried indoor tanning — a figure that includes 55 percent of university students and 19.3 percent of adolescents. Data obtained in the past five years shows 18.2 percent of adults, 45.2 percent of university students, and 22 percent of adolescents have visited tanning salons.

The study found more Northern and Western Europeans have been to a tanning salon than Americans or Australians.

Perhaps most shocking — in the U.S., nearly 390,000 new cases of skin cancer, including melanoma, each year can be attributed to indoor tanning. While skin cancer is generally less deadly than other cancers, this figure is far greater than the estimated 226,160 new cases of lung cancer each year attributed to smoking in the U.S.

The researchers believe that by preventing exposure at earlier ages to indoor tanning, more cases of skin cancer can be prevented.

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