HealthyCanada.com

2003/10/21

Women who visit tanning salons more than once a month particularly women in their 20s are more likely to contract a deadly form of skin cancer new research concludes.

The eight-year study of more than 100000 Scandinavian women found that frequent tanning booth users were 55 percent more likely to develop malignant melanoma the Associated Press (AP) reports. And the risk more than doubles for those in their 20s an international group of researchers found.

Fair-skinned people are particularly prone to skin cancer from the sun and artificial tanning sources the researchers note in last week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Their study found that the risk of melanoma from sun exposure was about two times higher for blondes than for women with black or brown hair. And for women with red hair the risk was about four times greater the AP reports.

Over 45000 cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year in North America and about 7300 of those people die.