A British Medical Journal report about indoor tanning released Tuesday included sunbed usage data collected in the 1970s before professional tanning salons even existed in North America and does not reflect modern professional indoor tanning.

“The data in this study do not say what its promoters are allowing others to say about it, and we can prove it,” said Joseph Levy, executive director of the International Smart Tan Network, the educational institute for North American tanning facilities. “At a time when much of the medical community is moderating its message to stop overzealous sun-phobia, it is time to have a higher-level conversation about the real nature of the risks and benefits of UV exposure. The professional operators in the North American sunbed community are prepared to be a part of that discussion.”

The study in question, “Indoor Tanning and non-melanoma skin cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis” is the latest in a series of studies that failed to disclose that three kinds of sunbeds make up the data sets in most studies about sunbed usage and that studies have identified different risks for each kind of unit:

• Sunbeds used in doctors offices to treat cosmetic skin conditions.
• Home sunbeds used without the supervision of a trained operator.
• Professional tanning salon sunbeds used with a trained operator.

That leads to specific problems with the BMJ study:

1. The new BMJ report was a meta-analysis of previously published survey question data collected in six different countries between 1977 and 2010. Professional tanning salons did not exist in North America in 1977, so much of the data in the BMJ report involved unmonitored home tanning equipment or even medical use of sunbeds to treat disease.
2. The BMJ report was an “ever-use” meta-analysis of surveys that asked people, “Have you ever used an indoor tanning device?” It did not control for how or where the devices were used. So the report’s conclusion — that ever-use of a sunbed led to a 29 percent increased risk of basal cell carcinoma and a 67 percent increased risk of squamous cell carcinoma — is a relatively weak statistical correlation without any controls or a mechanism to identify causation.
3. Medical use of sunbeds increases risk of skin cancer by up to 5,000 percent, according to the National Institutes of Health — 75 to 125 times greater than what the BMJ report alleges for indoor tanning sunbeds. http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/twelfth/profiles/MethoxsalenWithUVA.pdf

It should be noted that dermatologists use sunbeds to treat cosmetic skin conditions such as psoriasis, charging up to $150 per sunbed session, and that many dermatologists who don’t have their own sunbeds refer clients to tanning salons for informal treatment of psoriasis while tanning.

“So phototherapy in a dermatologists office with a drug and a nearly identical sunbed is called ‘safe’ by the dermatology community, but this study — which shows 75-125 times less risk from all sunbeds is trying to say that tanning salons are risky from data that isn’t even from professional tanning salons,” Levy said. “It is time to have a more-intelligent discussion about UV exposure.”

The BMJ study is the latest in a series of studies that have failed to account for the different types of sunbeds in research data. A 2009 World Health Organization report alleged indoor tanning increased melanoma risk 75 percent for those who tanned before age 30, when in fact that data set implicated medical phototherapy (96 percent) and home sunbed usage (40 percent) as the sources of the increased risk.

The International Smart Tan Network is the educational institute serving professional indoor tanning facilities in North America, teaching sunburn prevention and proper respect for both the potential risks and benefits of UV exposure.

SmartTan.com news articles regularly report medical and scientific information to keep you abreast of current events related to UV light. This information is not intended to be used by any party to make unwarranted health claims to promote sunbed usage. Indoor tanning businesses are obligated to communicate a fair and balanced message to all clients about your products and services including the potential risks associated with indoor tanning. Contact your Smart Tan representative to find out more about what you can and can’t say in your tanning salon business.

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