Solarium Skin Cancer Victim Dies

That's very sad. There was a similar story in our local newspapers a few years ago. A young woman, who had just given birth to her first child, died from melanoma at the age of 19 or 20 because of her use of tanning salons.

I have very sun-damaged skin from my years in the tropics, before the relationship between sun damage and cancer had been established. It's a constant worry. Yet even now, the young women I work with insist on baking themselves.

So very sad.

That's very sad. It's great that they're bringing in the new legislation though, so that people know the dangers. It's really maddening though, because people already know the dangers of the sun, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. In fact I read recently that skin cancer rates have started to rise again, in Australia.

I had a melanoma myself about 20 years ago, not caused by tanning salons, just by years of sun exposure and sunburn as a child. I'm so lucky; they caught it straight away. After it happened to me, I went on a bit of an anti-sun crusade, and was shocked and upset by the number of people who say things like "it'll never happen to me." Oh it does! When will people realise it?

What a pretty girl. Sad that her life was cut short by such silliness. I'm with you, poet. Moby Dick lived longer.

...that 'healthy-look' tan really really stresses the body -- it is NOT a sign of being 'fit', quite the contrary.

don't cave into the social pressures of 'looking' healthy.

http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/fdaandyou/issue07.html


In the Salon

With the convenience offered by a tanning salon, it may be tempting to lie in a tanning bed or sit in front of a tanning lamp. Fight the urge! Tanning beds and lights are just as dangerous as tanning at the pool or on the beach. The UVA rays emitted by a tanning lamp or bed are often much more intense than those produced by the sun. The aging and cancer risks associated with outdoor tanning are the same as tanning in a salon. For these reasons, the FDA doesn't recommend the use of indoor tanning equipment--EVER.


The Inescapable UV Ray

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is all around us. The most common source is sunlight, which produces three main types of UV rays: UVA, UVB, and UVC. While UVA and UVB rays are transmitted through the atmosphere, all UVC and some UVB rays are absorbed by the Earth's ozone layer. Most of the UV rays that reach the Earth’s surface are composed of UVA with a small amount of UVB.

UV light is classified by wavelength. UVB rays have a short wavelength that reaches the outer layer of your skin, called the epidermis. UVA rays have a longer wavelength that can penetrate and damage the lower layer of your skin, called the dermis. It's important to use protection when you're out in the sun because both UVA and UVB rays can cause sunburn, premature aging, skin cancer, and damage to the eyes and immune system.

Because UV rays are strongest from10 a.m. until 4 p.m., it's a good idea to check the Ultraviolet Index (UVI) before you go outside. UVI is a number from 1-11 that indicates the amount of skin-damaging UV rays reaching the earth's surface at any point in time. The daily UVI number, listed in the weather section of most city newspapers, forecasts the amount of UV you'll be exposed to during the sun's highest point in the sky-usually around noon. The higher the UVI number is, the more intense the exposure. If your local newspaper doesn't list the UVI for your area, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers UVI forecasts by ZIP code at http://www.epa.gov/sunwise/uvindex.html.

When the UVI is 5 or higher, you should always protect yourself from UV exposure with sunscreen, a brimmed hat, and sunglasses; taking extra care to reapply sunscreen and seek shade or stay indoors. Also remember that exposure doesn't come only from above; snow, sand, water, and even concrete reflect UV rays. In addition, clouds don’t block UVB and you can still get sunburned on a cloudy day. So it's important to wear sunscreen and protective gear in all types of weather.

*wanders through, smiling at Poet as she goes*


(stalks her victim with charm and grace)

Almost 5,000 people a year die from pedestrians getting plastered by cars. Many more die in car crashes. AIDs kills a whole bunch every year.

Booze, drugs, and stupid behavior kills a pacel more. Lightning kills more people, and I'd never take those odds on a bet.

So I'm not so concerned with this drivel. I'm more likely to be killed by a drive-by than skin cancer, and I had to work in it for decades.

Tan = burnt skin.

Someone I know said last week that if we worried all the time about what the government told us, we'd never do anything and that if you go out in the sun, eventually your skin gets used to it, so you tan instead of burning.

I said to her, a tan is burning, but she said she'd carry on sunbathing because she liked it, and she feels better with a tan. She may be in her 60s and so thinks she's had her time anyway, but think of how much shorter her life could be cut with cancer.

Having had UVB treatment for a skin condition, I'm aware of all the risks. Before it even started the nurses asked me if I'd ever sunbathed, used a tanning salon, had sunburn, do I go out in the sun, do I tan or burn...and my treatment was carefully calculated - both strength and duration.

Like a lot of medical treatments, the 'cure' can also be dangerous if it's taken too far. Why anyone would want to risk cancer I don't know. If this woman I mentioned gets skin cancer I won't have any sympathy for her. It'll be her own fault. She might not get it but she's not doing herself any favours.

I'm English so I'm supposed to be very white. I can live with that.

English? ENGLISH???

/strikes seun off her list.

(Just joking...I wouldn't touch Scotsmen with someone else's ladygarden).

Oh, and this idiot/friend I mentioned above? I told her I burned in the sun anyway, and she said, "You wouldn't if you went out regularly and let your skin get used to it." I said no I wouldn't, she insisted. You'd think a woman who's raised a family well would have a brain in her head, but no..."I like sunbathing so I'm going to carry on doing it." Right. I'd rather stay alive, thanks.

As if she knows my skin better than I do myself. I burn. Trust me. I burn badly, and that was even before my skin treatment (photobiology, to use the correct term). Yes, vitamin D in sunlight is good for you but too much can kill. Same with alcohol and many other things. Moderation in all things.

And especially since I came off the roaccutane (while you're taking it you have to stay completely out of the sun, even when covered in sun cream) I've noticed I go a wee bit pink even after a few minutes out doors, and the sun doesn't have to be out. Even when it's overcast. People say to me, "Ooh, look at you, getting a tan!" and I say, "Ooh, look at you, developing skin cancer!"

I never tan anyway - I go pink and my skin itches. The itching is a sign that the damage is done so I'm ultra careful these days.

I might be so pale I look like a corpse but that's better than actually being one.

The girl lives in Australia and goes inside to tan.


Os.

I'm glad I gave up that practice (years ago)

It did do me a good turn once, however. Going from Florida to North Dakota in the mid-spring - if I hadn't tanned up in the great white beyond - I'd have come back to Florida after the sun had reached the "fry" stage and I would have.

But other than that - No. I'm peach coloured and proud, thanks. Sadly, you can't tell grown folks what to do and even if you did - mostly they won't listen anyway.

le sigh.

Tragic that one would think so vainly as to subject themselves to something like that. She did not deserve death for her vanity. I hope her message reaches other people and brings them back down to reality.

Sadly, KTC, I doubt it. Some people think being orange is worth dying for. Me, I'd rather be pale and (hopefully) interesting.

hey, peaches (misnomer) - I am orange. Naturally. Don't be jealous. Someone has to do it.

oswann said:

The girl lives in Australia and goes inside to tan.

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The following in no way endorses tanning... There are way more tanning salons than Starbucks in the Phoenix Valley, of all places, and here in Wilmington, where we have such beautiful beaches, tanning salons are profitable. Makes no sense for those who want to fake bake when the real thing is free.

scarletpeaches said:

Tan = burnt skin. snip
I said to her, a tan is burning

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Sorry, Scarlet, but this is inaccurate. A sunburn is immediate damage to the skin, while a tan is a protective response triggered by that same sun exposure. As mentioned above, UV light is damaging--in two ways. It can cause an actual burn to the epidermis and even underlying dermis, but it can also induce mutations in living cells, particularly those that are actively dividing. The first one is acute and typically not life threatening (but can be), the latter is much more serious can be extremely lethal.

If we just look as the epidermis--the outer layer of our skin, it is many cell layers thick. In the lowest layers, cells are actively dividing, making new epidermal cells, which push the others upward. As these cells move upward, they die (a programmed cell death) and in the process fill themselves with a form of "soft" keratin ("hard" keratin makes up our fingernails). So the upper layers of cells are dead and keratinized. That's what helps make them relatively impremeable to water and other solvents. The top layer of dead cells is constantly being rubbed off, so the epidermis stays the same thickness despite the constant production of new cells from below. Down among the actively-dividing cells are pigment cells called melanocytes. These produce a pigment called melanin, which is taken up by the newly budded cells that eventually move up to the surface to be lost. This melanin gives us our skin color. Unless we are albino, we all have active melanocytes, but the different skin colors of the human "races" result from different rates of melanin production, and of deposition of that melanin in these newly-budded epidermal cells. The good news is melanin absorbs UV radiation, so it is protective. People with darker skin are better protected from UV, at least as far as the deeper layers of skin, and the underlying structures is concerned. What is a tan? It is a response of the melanocytes to UV stimulation. Under this stimulation, they increase their melanin production, so more is taken up by the epidermal cells, and abra-cadabra, we have a darkening of the skin, known as a tan. We lose a tan because without continual UV exposure, the melanin production will go back to normal (what is genetically determined) and the dead cells that contain the extra melanin will eventually be sloughed off from the surface. This is what is so dangerous about year-round tanning. To keep the tan, the body has to be continually exposed to UV. So, tanning is good in the sense it is a protective response of the body to protect cells in the lower layers of the epidermis (where cells are actively dividing), cells in the dermis, and cells of underlying structures--cells that are subject to UV-generated genetic mutations, including cancer-causing mutations.

A side note, anyone who discriminates against an individual based on the color of his/her skin is making that judgement on one simple difference--the rate of melanin production in the skin. Silly reason to treat someone differently, particularly since the person doing the judging may very well see a tan as a positive physical attribute.

Exactly. If a tan is your skin's defence system, it means the damage is already done. People die to change the colour of their skin. Idiotic, that's all it is.

If you insist on being orange, buy a bottle of fake bake.

Joe270 said:

So I'm not so concerned with this drivel.

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Neither was I, Joe, until I got diagnosed.

Like Mandy-Jane's, mine was caught early, so all I have to show for it is this really neat scar on my forearm. Could have killed me though, if I didn't have it taken care of.

Joe270 said:

Booze, drugs, and stupid behavior kills a pacel more.

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That's the point. Using a tanning salon is stupid behavior.

You've got a classic case of "it-will-never-happen-to-me." Keep this up and I'll have to hold you down while scarletpeaches slathers you with sunscreeen.

I don't really tan, either. Got a helluva lotta freckles on my arms and shoudlers, though. I've burned enough, having had at least three blistering burns in my life, to where staying indoors is my favorite outdoor activity, then kew.

My mother told me that when my younger sister and her husband went to Mexico for a honeymoon, my sister came back burgundy from "tanning" so much. Burgundy, people! That ain't right! I'm surprised she's not a walking, talking melanoma by now.

My father, Soccer Dad, and my next door neighbor have all had chunks of skin surgically removed thanks to skin cancer. My neighbor had to have her nose rebuilt from her ear because they took most of it off.

You know I love you, my scorpion friend, but you're wrong on this one. Skin cancer is dangerous. It nearly killed my neighbor.

I was reckless with my skin when I was younger. I hope I don't have to take my turn under the knife.

A tan does equal damaged skin. Exposure to the sun causes damage to the DNA of skin cells.

More than 1 million skin cancers are diagnosed each year in the U.S. alone, with close to 60,000 of those being the most deadly (melanoma). Prevention and early detection are the keys to survival of skin cancer.

Take care of your skin. Skin cancer is not an immediate disease, although it is developing earlier and rapidly in people in their 20s due to issues like tanning beds. It is the most preventable cancer for all ages and skin types.

Take special care to protect your children and educate them. 50-80 percent of sun exposure happens in childhood.

Cancer is nothing to take lightly. In fact, that is a large part of the problem with preventable forms of cancer (lung and skin especially). Many people don't take it seriously enough. I work with cancer patients on a daily basis, and in doing so, it is evident there is nothing to take lightly about cancer. I know that something like quitting smoking is extremely hard, but the alternative is much worse.

Lets face it, we're all going to die of something one day. Someone who has never smoked just died of lung cancer. A healthy jogger just died if a heart attack. A chronic sun bather just got hit by a car at the age of 75. A cholesterol queen since age 13 dies peacefully at the age of 86 in her sleep...

Can you really change your fate?


6 million ways to die, only one way to live.