Birth of Pull the Plug on Tanning Beds

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with yesterday’s event co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy! Eight years ago, my daughter Jaime died from melanoma, which the doctors believed was from her use of tanning beds in high school and college. She was diagnosed when she was 20 and fought the evil beast of a disease until her death at 29. My Jaime’s story gave me the passion and conviction to become “the indoor tanning industry’s worst nightmare.” The day

Making an informed choice about indoor tanning

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event today co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy! I am so pleased to have the opportunity present on behalf of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) during  “The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses” event co-hosted by Disruptive Women in Health Care and Congressional Families for Cancer Prevention of the Prevent Cancer Foundation that takes place today.  The timing of this event is particularly appropriate for us because May

Say no to Indoor Tanning Beds. Know More. Do Better.

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event today co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy! I CONFESS… I went to a tanning bed before attending a destination wedding, thinking I was getting a “base coat” that would prevent me from getting a sunburn. I used a sun lamp in high school, thinking it would clear my blemished skin. I used to wrap a vinyl record album cover with aluminum foil to create a sun reflecting visor in an effort to focus

Addressing the risks of indoor tanning

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event Wednesday co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy! It is not the kind of selfie we usually expect to see on Facebook. A young woman looks forlornly away from the camera, her face covered from top to bottom with bloody scabs—the result of treatment for skin cancer. The therapy is aggressive; but it is necessary, because at the age of just 27, Tawny Willoughby has had carcinoma six times. Almost every time she sees the

Why Don’t We Take Tanning As Seriously As Tobacco?

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event Wednesday co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy! In 2009, upon review of the science on tanning beds and cancer, the International Agency for Research on Cancer assigned tanning beds a class 1 carcinogen, joining tobacco and asbestos in the highest classification of harm. In spite of this development, skin cancer rates have steadily climbed over the last 3 decades. Rising prevalence is seen especially in young women, with an 8-fold increase since 1970. Melanoma, the deadly form

Scientific research: Association between indoor tanning bed use and skin cancers

With May being Skin Cancer Awareness Month and in tandem with our event Wednesday co-hosted with the Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program, The Hazards and Allure of Indoor Tanning Beds on College Campuses we are running a series on skin cancer. Be sure to check back daily for posts on skin cancer including how you prevent and detect it. Enjoy! There is mounting scientific research that shows an association between indoor tanning bed use and the risk of developing melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. I believe that significant public health efforts to reduce indoor tanning could greatly reduce the burden of skin cancer. I have spent the past several years developing a research program related to better understanding the decision to use indoor tanning beds