The results of a study were recently released that examined the best strategy to wean college-age women who are considered addicted or pathological tanners from tanning salons. “They’re not worried about skin 
cancer, but they are worried about getting wrinkled and being unattractive,” said June Robinson, a professor of dermatology at Northwestern University and senior author of a May 17 paper in Archives of Dermatology. “The fear of looking horrible trumped everything else,” said Robinson.
Between 25 to 40 percent of older adolescent girls visit tanning salons, according to the study’s authors and they and other scientists link the rapidly rising rates of melanoma and other skin cancers in young women to tanning beds. The National Cancer Institute reports that melanoma rates among Caucasian women aged 15-39 rose 50% between 1980 and 2004. The World Health Organization recently reclassified indoor tanning beds to its highest cancer risk category.
The study included 435 college women who visited tanning salons up to four times a week. The study results surprised the researchers. Click here for full press release.
Source: Marla Paul, Northwestern University Newscenter.