Coalition of doctors and cancer patients calls for blanket ban on sunbeds
The Coalition Against Sunbed campaigners outside Leinster House calling for the total ban of sunbeds are (left to right) Dr Diarmuid O'Shea, president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland; Dr Cathy Cullen, national director of Specialist Training in General Practice, Irish College of GPs; Kevin O’Hagan, cancer prevention manager, Irish Cancer Society; Miriam Staunton, chair of United Cancer Advocates Network and Melanoma Support Ireland; Orla Dolan, chief executive of Breakthrough Cancer Research; Liz Yeates, chief executive officer of Marie Keating Foundation; Steve Dempsey, director of advocacy and communications of the Irish Cancer Society; Gill Costelloe, patient advocate at Melanoma Support Ireland; and David Mc Mahon, chief executive officer of the Irish Skin Foundation. Photo: Paul Sherwood
A blanket ban on sunbeds — both in tanning salons and private homes — is needed to save lives, a new coalition of doctors and cancer patients has urged.
The Coalition Against Sunbeds said sunbed use significantly increases the risk of melanoma, rising by 75% among those who use them before the age of 35.
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It called for the Government to go further than considering a ban on commercial sunbeds. “A total ban of all sunbeds, including those in a residential setting, not just commercial sunbeds” is needed, it said.
The coalition includes the Royal College of Physicians Ireland, the Irish College of GPs, the Irish Association of Dermatologists, Irish Cancer Society, and the Marie Keating Foundation.
One of the 70 people diagnosed with melanoma each year as a result of sunbed use said she is now living with stage 4 cancer.
“We know what damage sunbeds do and we simply cannot sit and watch any more people die from using sunbeds,” said Gill Costelloe.
Ms Costelloe, a patient advocate with Melanoma Support Ireland, spoke out to share her experiences.
“I used sunbeds when I was younger and now I'm paying the price because I'm living with stage 4 melanoma, which is a terminal cancer,” she said.
“My melanoma was caught early when I had a mole surgically removed but, five years later, it came back without any warning and spread right through my body, nearly killing me.”
She remains in treatment. “Some day that treatment may stop working and I have to live with that at the back of my mind every single day,” she said.
Australia has already seen positive benefits from banning commercial sunbeds, said Ms Costelloe, from Dublin.
Tallaght University Hospital dermatologist Anne-Marie Tobin warned: “The link between sunbeds and skin cancer is clear.”
She pointed to the World Health Organization’s grouping of sunbeds in the same carcinogenic category as tobacco and asbestos.
“5.4% of melanomas, the most serious and dangerous form of skin cancer, are directly linked to sunbed use,” she said.
These cancers could cost up to €9.7m to treat, said Ms Tobin.
"The time has come to act and to ban sunbeds. That is why the Coalition Against Sunbeds has launched today and is urgently calling for Government to set out a timeline for when it will introduce a blanket ban,” she said on Wednesday.
It is estimated about 120,000 people in Ireland use sunbeds, while the number of people expected to be diagnosed with melanoma in Ireland will double by 2045.
Legislation is already in place that bans their use by under-18s but the coalition highlighted data showing one in 20 children aged 10-17 have used sunbeds.
The Department of Health said no decision has been made around the banning of commercial sunbeds. It intends to consult with the European Commission and others before deciding.
Its sunbed working group intends to publish a report on a public consultation around this issue before the end of next month.
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