Sunbed warning by health officials

They have backed a new tough message from the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment that excessive sunbed use is definitely cancer causing.

One of them, Paul Unsworth, chief environmental health officer for Arun District Council, said he is keen to tackle rogues within the trade.

"I will be backing national calls for improvements such as licensing of operators, prohibition of access for under 18s, and banning of unsupervised commercial sunbeds outlets.

"The risk of getting the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, has been found to be increased by 75 per cent in people who started using sunbeds regularly before the age of 30."

More than 2,600 people die from skin cancer each year in the UK, of which more than 2,000 are from malignant melanoma. This is almost as many people as are killed in motor accidents.

There have been concerns in West Sussex for some time about the more unscrupulous elements of the sunbed trade, with a trend towards unstaffed salons and the ease with which young people seem to be able to get access to potentially lethal tanning equipment.

Whilst the Sunbed Association has tried to bring about a measure of self-regulation only about 20 per cent of salons belong to it.

West Sussex environmental health officers have issued a recommendation to those seeking a salon tan to go only to salons who are members of the Sunbed Association and following their guidelines.

The warnings have come at a time when health bosses have revealed that the number of Sussex cases have doubled in ten years.

Experts have blamed the increase on 'sun-seeking behaviour', including holidays, sunbeds and competitive tanning among friends.

Figures from the county's primary care trusts show there were 482 reported cases of malignant melanoma in 2006 compared to in 237 in 1996. In West Sussex the figure went up from 90 to 178 and in East Sussex from 108 to 248.

Consultant dermatologist Arjida Woollons from Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Worthing Hospital, Southlands Hospital in Shoreham and St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, said she had treated a patient as young as 21.

She said: "Most people who develop melanoma tend to be in their 60s or 70s because it is a disease caused by the gradual accumulation of damage caused by the sun over the years.

"However, we have noticed in recent years that more and more younger people are coming in and being diagnosed with skin cancer.

"There can be different reasons for this, but a lot of it is down to more people travelling abroad for holidays and using sunbeds. We are not saying they should not enjoy the sun by they should take the right precautions."