Tanning Beds Are Mutating Your DNA and Tripling the Risk of Deadly Skin Cancer

As temperatures begin to drop in many parts of the country, some people may turn to tanning beds to maintain their summer glow. Although tanning bed manufacturers have claimed that they are no more dangerous than sitting in the sun, a new study “irrefutably” disputes these claims.

Published in Scientific advancesThe study shows that people who use tanning beds are three times more likely to develop melanoma than those who do not use them. Even more worrying, for the first time, scientists have discovered that tanning beds cause widespread DNA damage, with mutations appearing even in places where the sun never shines.

“Even on normal skin of indoor tanned patients, in areas where there are no moles, we found changes in DNA that are precursor mutations that predispose to melanoma. This has never been shown before,” first author Pedram Gerami said in a press release.

Learn more: How many ways can the sun kill us?

Linking tanning beds to melanoma

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, and approximately 11,000 Americans die from it each year. While treating patients with multiple cases of melanoma, Gerami noticed that an unusually high number of patients were women under the age of 50. Since young women are one of the largest demographic groups using tanning beds, he suspected that tanning beds might have something to do with their cases of melanoma and wanted to investigate further.

To begin the study, researchers compared the medical records of 6,000 people, half of whom used tanning beds and half of whom did not. Among those who used tanning beds, 5.1 percent had been diagnosed with melanoma, compared to just 2.1 percent of those who had never used tanning beds. This equates to tanning bed users being around three times more likely to develop melanoma.

Another surprising finding was that tanning bed users developed melanoma in areas of the body that are not normally exposed to the sun, such as the lower back and buttocks. These results piqued the research team’s interest in determining whether or not tanning beds caused more extensive DNA damage than the sun.

How tanning beds damage DNA

To find out whether tanning beds caused significant DNA damage, scientists used new genomic technologies and performed single-cell DNA sequencing on melanocytes – the cells where melanin is formed that can be transformed into melanoma.

After sequencing 182 individual melanocytes from three different skin donor groups, their hypothesis was confirmed. The skin cells of people who used tanning beds had almost twice as many mutations as those in the control group, and their mutations were more likely to be linked to melanoma.

These mutations also matched the pattern seen in the medical records comparison, with tanning bed users showing DNA mutations in areas of the body usually protected from the sun. This finding confirms that tanning beds cause greater DNA damage than the sun.

“In outdoor sun exposure, perhaps 20 percent of your skin is most damaged. In tanning bed users, we observed these same dangerous mutations on almost the entire surface of the skin,” Gerami explained.

A warning against tanning beds

The research team hopes their study will dissuade people from using tanning beds and encourage policy change, particularly when it comes to children.

“At the very least, indoor tanning should be illegal for minors,” Gerami suggested. “Most of my patients started tanning when they were young, vulnerable and did not have the same level of knowledge and education as adults. They feel wronged by the industry and regret the mistakes of their youth.”

Did you use tanning beds when you were younger? Gerami recommends seeing a dermatologist for a full-body skin exam to make sure you’re not at risk for melanoma.

This article does not offer medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.

Learn more: Olive oil may benefit your skin, but not as a natural sunscreen

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