Increase in melanoma skin cancer blamed on tanning

Jessica Shutovich, 23, of St. James, went under the lamps of a tanning salon twice a week for six years until she noticed skin damage and freckles under her eyes.

[SillyAmericans]

Nothing new. Asian moms have been preaching for a long time.

[fat albertino]

darwin would have considered tanning booths an element of natural selection

[Whats That Again]

I must have missed it, but what made tanning salon customers think that they were avoiding the dangers of UV rays?

And FWI, at the age of 50, these tanning customers will begin to spend 1 to 2K per month on skin creams trying to undo the bad effects of UV exposure...to no avail.

[yikes]

I cannot understand with all the research out there, why tanning salons are still so huge. We are an island! We have beaches! not to say that they are safer, sun damage is sun damage - but with a beach you can go in the shade. A friend had something cancerous removed that appeared out of nowhere on her face and could have scarred. She never went in the sun-- so how do these people feel invincible?

[rvc]

So let me get this straight, she actually has a family history of skin cancer, but chooses to go to tanning salons? Why is this even a story? Its like someone whose family members have died from lung cancer choosing to smoke cigarettes constantly. Why should I care about these people?
What is it going to take to get through to these people that when you see a tan its actually done from the same process that causes skin damage? You are basically saying Ok i'm going to lie in the sun today and see how much I can damage my skin, the more the better, woohoo Paris Hilton here I come!!

[Just me-cancer free]

I have been an advid tanner for a very long time. I felt as if I looked healthy with a tan and it made me feel better about me. Never used sun screen because I tanned so nicely. Do not have a history of skin cancer in my family. Well I just finished having skin cancer removed from my arms and my face. It was quite scarey but needless to say that in my early 40's I am now using sunscreen and have made the choice to stay out of the sun. If I need a tan I will attempt the spray kind and pray I don't look like a pumkin!

[On The Road To Cancer]

I am befuddled buy the comment made by a very attractive young lady in today's print edition. She admits to tanning every day for one year. She even said she's addicted and knows it's dangerous. The cost of the sun is free whereas lord knows how much this young lady has spent on tanning. The real cost is the effect on the skin and the wallet when skin cancer comes knocking.

It is sad to see an attractive person self-destructing because we know that that she will look like a walking saddle bag unless she stops. Those good looks will soon disappear. How sad.

This young lady and others need guidance. Tanning, quite simply, is an injury to the skin. Yes, people may look nice and society glamorizes tanning but imagine the feeling in the pit of one's stomach when the oncologist says you have cancer. No so glamorous anymore, is it?

Some people have self-destructive personalities. You need look no further than smokers, alcoholics, and drug addicts. They're addicitive personalities will lead to bad consequences.

I hope that this young lady, and others, will get the proper guidance and change their behavior. To know you're doing something wrong and then continuing to do something wrong is a path to disaster.

[LIer]

I dont see what the fascination is about tanning. Beach/backyard tanning is one thing but tanning salons is another. I think its all about looking like what popular culture portrays as a good looking girl.

90% of the girls I know that go tanning are slutty bimbos who inject drama into everything and go through a boyfriend a week.

Just be yourself and people will respect you more ...

[LIer]

Its actually kinda funny, we Americans think being darker is better but yet the people in Africa and Latin America are the total opposite ... they go "whitening".

[Gay Ramone]

Jessica Shutovich, 23, of St. James is one of the stupidest people I have ever met.

She said "skin cancer is easy to treat because its ontop of the skin"

Another example of the fine education system on Long Island.

[DL Smith]

There are several problems with this article:

- There is no "molecular signature" linking UVR (ultraviolet radiation) and melanoma. Thus, blaming UVR for causing melanoma only serves to delay the research needed to find the real cause.

- The only current increase in the incidence of melanoma is in men over the age of 50. All other age groups for both men and women show a leveling off or decrease over the past decade. I seriously doubt that many men over 50 are patronizing tanning salons.

- Although the incidence of melanoma has increased since 1950, the age-adjusted mortality has remained constant. If there was really an "epidemic" of melanoma, the mortality rate would have also increased.

- If UVR was the cause of melanoma, it would follow that sunscreen use over the past 30 years should have reduced the incidence of melanoma when, in fact, the opposite is true. So the question is, does sunscreen use cause melanoma?

[Susan]

It's so confusing because I recently read an article that said lack of sun exposure is the leading cause of OTHER cancers (excludes skin cancer). Vitamin D deficiency is still a major problem in this country because most people would rather drink sodas, juices, power drinks, etc. than vitamin D fortified milk. I guess the answer is that you only need 15 to 30 minutes of sunlight every day, NOT 4, 6 or 8 hours. And you should take a vitamin D supplement.

[Jaimes mom]

Thank you so much for running this report. Melanoma is killing our young men and women at increasing and alarming rates. My 29-year-old daughter Jaime lost her life to melanoma last year after a courageous 9-year battle. It was not the life a young woman dreams about but instead full of surgeries, chemo, immunotherapies, radiation, vomiting, fatigue, and baldness. She had been a "frequent fryer" in the tanning salons in high school, and she knew that that behavior in search of a killer tan had indeed cost her her life. She would want to tell any young person to stay away from the tanning beds and be cautious in the sun. It just isn't worth it.