DeLauro Statement on Sunbeds Posing Similar Cancer Risk as Cigarettes

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) issued the following statement on a report in the journal Lancet Oncology by a special committee of the World Health Organization for Research on Cancer, which concluded that all types of ultraviolet light – whether UV-A or UV-B – used in tanning beds is as carcinogenic as asbestos, radium, arsenic and cigarettes. The committee of 20 scientists from nine countries, which reviewed more than 20 studies in humans and animals, found that the risk of melanoma – the most deadly form of skin cancer – increases 75% when people start using tanning beds before age 30.

DeLauro recently wrote to the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Margaret Hamburg, M.D., over questions and concerns stemming from a 2008 FDA report to Congress, "Labeling Information on the Relationship Between the Use of Indoor Tanning Devices and Development of Skin Cancer or Other Skin Damage," and looking at opportunities to work with the agency to protect consumers from harmful indoor tanning products.

"It is now acknowledged by the scientific community that whether you are lighting up a cigarette or sliding into a tanning bed, both are equally as dangerous to people's health.

"Given these new findings that tanning beds are a definite cause of cancer, it is imperative that FDA immediately examine the agency's current classification of sunlamp products as a Class I medical device.

"Class I devices have a minimal potential for harm such as bandages and tongue depressors. By moving tanning beds into the top cancer risk category, the research by the International Agency for Research on Cancer clearly demonstrates that tanning beds can cause significant harm. It is time that FDA re-examine its classification of tanning beds to ensure that the agency translates this hard science into life-saving action."

According to the World Health Organization, as many as 60,000 people a year worldwide die from too much sun, mostly from malignant skin cancer. Of these deaths, 48,000 are from melanoma and 12,000 are from other skin cancers. Approximately, 90 percent of these cancers are caused by ultraviolet light from the sun.