Sunbeds increase the risk of cancer, whatever TikTok tells you | Sali Hughes on beauty

My response to people telling me they’ve been “for a quick sunbed” is, I imagine, similar to the reaction one might get from Chris Packham for admitting to going on a quick foxhunt. I loathe the things and believe they should be banned here (as they are in Australia, Brazil and Iran).

I assumed commercial sunbeds were becoming déclassé, but a new survey commissioned by tanning brand Vita Liberata for its campaign Not the Way to Glow has shown there’s still a mountain to climb.

One in three of the British women surveyed used indoor tanning beds, despite 91% of that third claiming to understand the risk of exposure to UV radiation, namely: a significant increase in the chance of developing skin cancer, including melanoma – the most lethal kind.

Those who’ve used a sunbed just once have a 20% greater chance of developing melanoma

The World Health Organization classifies indoor sunbeds as being as dangerous as asbestos and cigarettes, with those who’ve used a sunbed just once having a 20% greater chance of developing melanoma than someone who hasn’t. Those using a sunbed for the first time before the age of 35 increases that figure to a shocking 59%. Sunbeds are also a known cause of basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas , both more common than melanoma, and capable of killing.

Commercial sunbeds are deathbeds and their blithe presence in tanning salons on British high streets (there are an estimated 5,500 of them) legitimises them – especially to young people. Despite use of sunbeds having been restricted to over-18s across the UK for 12 years, they’re a big draw on TikTok, with 65.5m views for the #tanningsalon hashtag alone.

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Kim Kardashian posts from her at-home solarium. And TikTok is rife with misinformation on the subject. In fact, sunbeds before a holiday do not help prepare your skin for the sun; use of sunbeds produces negligible vitamin D; they are a poor and risky way to treat conditions such as psoriasis and eczema (they can worsen it over time. The UV medical treatment used by dermatologists on these conditions is controlled), and covering moles with a plaster or pimple patch before getting on a sunbed is as about as effective as a chocolate fireguard.

There are calls for TikTok to impose misinformation banners as social media platforms (eventually) did with Covid-19, but given the velocity, variety and amount of cobblers spoken about skin health on TikTok, one might not know where to begin or, indeed, end.