Cancer expert backs ban on sunbeds

AS the country’s leading cancer expert comes out in support of the Health Minister’s call for a ban on sunbeds, a survey has found that staff operating the tanning devices have no knowledge of the dangers they pose.

National director of cancer control Professor Tom Keane said tough new laws and education were needed to tackle the nation’s love of tanning shops.

The professor said there is clear evidence that sunbeds could cause skin cancer, noting a recent research paper which classified them as a category one carcinogen.

“If that was a drug or a substance that was in food, there would be a massive clamour out there for it to be banned,” he said.

Prof Keane backed Health Minister Mary Harney’s call for an outright ban on sunbeds which she made at the three-day global cancer summit organised by cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong foundation.

“A big part of this is around education – educating parents and educating the public that lying under a suntan machine and potentially getting excessive exposure is simply not healthy,” he said.

Meanwhile, an Irish Cancer Society survey of sunbed outlets in Dublin found that customers were not advised of the dangers they posed and links with skin cancer. The results of society’s undercover research found there were inconsistencies in guidelines for usage; staff showed no knowledge of the dangers of sunbeds; and sunbed usage was presented as a totally natural and safe thing to do.

There were no guidelines on the walls of the eight sunbed providers surveyed about how often and how long sunbed sessions should be. Only one sunbed provider had “a small sign on the wall about the possible dangers of overexposure to UVA/UVB rays emitted from sunbeds which cause skin cancer”.

Norma Cronin, Irish Cancer Society, said: “We understand that the Department of Health is preparing legislation to ban sunbed usage in under 18-year-olds, which has been promised since June 2006. This is to be welcomed.”

Speaking at the global cancer summit in Dublin yesterday, Craig Sinclair, director of the World Health Organisation’s Collaborative Centre for UV Radiation and director of the Cancer Prevention Centre at the Cancer Council Victoria, Australia, said “most Australian states have now introduced comprehensive controls of the sunbed industry which includes banning all those under 18 years and unsupervised operations”.

“As a result of the publicity around the dangers combined with the legislation, we have seen a 50% reduction in the number of operators in some states,” he said.