WHO: Tanning beds can cause cancer

LONDON, July 29 (UPI) -- Ultraviolet radiation tanning beds and UV radiation were moved up to the highest cancer risk category by a World Health Organization agency, officials said.

A special report in the August edition of The Lancet Oncology said the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a part of WHO, moved tanning beds up to the highest cancer risk category -- carcinogenic to humans. The use of sunlamps and sunbeds was previously classified as probably carcinogenic to humans.

Dr. Fatiha El Ghissassi and colleagues at IARC in Lyon, France, said the comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that the risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75 percent when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age.

In addition, all types of ionizing radiation were also classified as carcinogenic to humans including:

-- Radon gas, which seeps from soil, rocks and building materials, causing lung cancer.

-- Plutonium and its decay products.

-- Radium and its decay products, affecting the bones of medical patients.

-- Phosphorous-32 and its decay products, causing acute leukemia in medical patients.

-- Radioiodines, affecting the thyroids in children and adolescent survivors of nuclear reactor accidents.