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Managing UV exposure is everyone’s responsibility. We should all make an effort to protect ourselves and make a conscious effort to check for cancers of all types throughout life. With that in mind, why would a cancer group misinform people about the true risks and causal relationships of skin cancer?
“The real reason that Snooki no longer uses a tanning bed is actually the result of an intervention with The Skin Cancer Foundation’s Senior Vice President, Dr. Deborah S. Sarnoff. Recently, Dr. Sarnoff sat down with the cast of MTV’s hit show to discuss the dangers of tanning and its connection to skin cancer. The intervention was successful and the "Jersey Shore" roommates made the switch to spray tanning.” http://www.skincancer.org/real-reason-snooki-gave-up-tanning.html
Very interesting that the respectable doctor promotes coating yourself with chemicals when you look at this http://www.prlog.org/10562900-spray-tan-for-life-commits-to-donate-5-of-2010-profits-to-the-fight-against-skin-cancer.html.
Not shocking in a culture controlled by greed and corporate interests. Very little is known about the reaction these airbrushing chemicals can have since it is a relatively new fad. The FDA is concerned about DHA (spray tan chemical). DHA should not be inhaled, ingested, or used in such a way that the eyes and eye area are exposed to it because the risks, if any, are unknown. For consumers who choose to get DHA spray in tanning booths, the FDA recommends protective measures for the eyes, nose, and mucous membranes - http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/603_tan.html. If they don’t want you absorbing it with
your eyes, ears, or mouth, how can they accept the absorbing process the skin goes through (skin being the largest human organ)? Much like asbestos insulation and lead paint, we may not know what this exposure will harm until it is too late. Also, you don't want to be remembered for this - http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/christina_aguilera_spray_tan_snafu_io3sR8Q3A17PdKjGzSBBaO
The skin cancer foundation's fact sheet claims are copied word for word and highlighted in red. I invite you to check the sources as I did and make your own conclusions.
GENERAL
• Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually. 1
Source is a 2006 study entitled “Incidence Estimate.” As you will find out later, one of the sources admits that 95% of these cases are non-melanoma and not tracked by cancer research.
• Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon. 2
“About 1,529,560 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2010. This estimate does not include basal and squamous cell skin cancers, which are not required to be reported to cancer registries. More than 2 million people were treated for basal and squamous cell skin cancers in 2006” – Page 1 of this American Cancer Society source. Of the 2 million people estimated to be treated in 2006, how many had already undergone treatment previously? This number doesn’t exclude those who may have already removed some type of skin cancer.
• One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime. 3
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/294/12/1541.extract “Sun Exposure, Sun Protection, and Vitamin D.” The full article isn’t available, but it does list the participants. “Participants: A convenience sample of 340 Danish volunteers: children, adolescents, indoor workers, sun worshippers, golfers, and gardeners (age range, 4-68 years).” Not exactly your average American or a scientific study. They tracked people’s diaries and followed them for one summer.
• Over the past 31 years, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined. 4
http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/146/3/279 This study was done by a medical doctor acting alone. “As with all findings based on mathematical modeling, the precision of my estimate of NMSC prevalence is not known.” He also states “…most persons who develop NMSC will have multiple skin cancers during their lifetime.” Skin Cancer.org’s quote is based on his second to last line in his paper, “The prevalence of a history of skin cancer is far higher than that of any other cancer and exceeds that of all other cancers diagnosed since 1975,” and is sourced to another cancer study, but not specifically expanded upon in this paper. This doesn’t say more people have skin cancer than any other. It says a history is more prevalent than any other. A larger history can be attributed to the low mortality rate and high chance of reoccurance.
• Nearly 800,000 Americans are living with a history of melanoma and 13 million are living with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, typically diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. 5
Source links a CDC survey from 2007. The survey was tough to read, but I could not figure out what “history” meant. What qualified an individual as having a genetic history can be quite vague and wide ranging. Interesting to note, without basal and squamous numbers (non-melanoma), this link contains a CDC fact sheet, which estimates about 76,000 men and women will be diagnosed with skin cancer in 2011. This means that of the 2 million estimated diagnosed people, over 1.9 million are unreported basal/squamous. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/skin.html
• Actinic keratosis is the most common precancer; it affects more than 58 million Americans. 6 Approximately 65 percent of all squamous cell carcinomas arise in lesions that previously were diagnosed as actinic keratoses. In patients with a history of two or more skin cancers, 36 percent of basal cell carcinomas arise in lesions previously diagnosed as actinic keratoses. 7
“The estimated probability of a lesion progressing to squamous cell carcinoma ranges from 0.025 to 20% per lesion per year.22 Individuals with AKs may experience symptoms such as itching, burning, and tenderness around the lesion.
Other symptoms include pink, brown or red discoloration of the skin with a lesion diameter of less than one centimeter.
AKs may be caused by various biological and/or environmental factors. Biological factors that are known to influence AKs include age, gender, and skin color. Those at greatest risk of developing AKs are Caucasian males between the ages of 65 and 74. People who are immunocompromised or have mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene are also at an
elevated risk of developing AKs.23 Non-biological factors include occupational exposure to UV light, geographic place of birth, overall sun exposure, socioeconomic status, and diet….Since most AKs are found on parts of the body which typically receive the greatest exposure to sunlight (i.e. backs of hands, forearms, head and neck), UV radiation is thought to be the major environmental contributor to AK.” - copied word for word from source 6: http://www.lewin.com/content/publications/april2005skindisease.pdf
• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer; an estimated 2.8 million are diagnosed annually in the US.8 BCCs are rarely fatal, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.
Source 8 is an email from a guy named Howard Rodgers to the Skin Cancer Foundation. I could not locate the source. However, the 2.8 million Basal cell cases exceed the annual estimate of 2 million basal and squamous cell cases estimated by the first source. This is a 40% increase! In only one category!
• Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common form of skin cancer.9 An estimated 700,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the US,10 resulting in approximately 2,500 deaths.2
http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/sun_squamous.html - link to source 9…I couldn’t find this statement. I did find a statement similar to it, which says SCC is a “very common” type…not a critical discrepancy, but another good example of misquotation and distortion. Source 2, as you should recall, excluded both BCC and SCC figures from factual statements. I found numbers on melanoma deaths, but nothing on BCCs. If in the report, this claim would again be nothing more than an estimate.
• Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will have either skin cancer at least once.11
Good to note that this study admits that the question of hat use in regard to the use of protective clothing did not exclude baseball caps until 2005…the neck is one of the areas AKs were specifically dangerous. This website does say 40-50% of Americans who see 65 “have non-melanoma at least once,” however it doesn’t source this figure specifically. Changing the words from “non-melanoma,” which is highly treatable, to skin cancer is a nice, misleading spin.
• About 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.12
We’ve already established that these associations can easily be challenged with simple logic. I am not arguing that sunburns don’t create risk, but these studies are performed on human beings that may not understand questionnaires or provide less than honest feedback. If 90% is accurate, how many subjects within the 90% would be caused by malicious/ignorant/careless over-exposure?
• Treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancers increased by nearly 77 percent between 1992 and 2006.13
I don’t even need the source for this one. Most cases on non-melanoma skin cancer occur in people above the age of 50. An aging baby boom combined with increased life expectancy, heightened awareness, and more efficient medical care explain such an increase quite easily.
• Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States. More than 3.5 million skin cancers in over two million people are diagnosed annually. 1
Source is a 2006 study entitled “Incidence Estimate.” As you will find out later, one of the sources admits that 95% of these cases are non-melanoma and not tracked by cancer research.
• Each year there are more new cases of skin cancer than the combined incidence of cancers of the breast, prostate, lung and colon. 2
“About 1,529,560 new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2010. This estimate does not include basal and squamous cell skin cancers, which are not required to be reported to cancer registries. More than 2 million people were treated for basal and squamous cell skin cancers in 2006” – Page 1 of this American Cancer Society source. Of the 2 million people estimated to be treated in 2006, how many had already undergone treatment previously? This number doesn’t exclude those who may have already removed some type of skin cancer.
• One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of a lifetime. 3
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/294/12/1541.extract “Sun Exposure, Sun Protection, and Vitamin D.” The full article isn’t available, but it does list the participants. “Participants: A convenience sample of 340 Danish volunteers: children, adolescents, indoor workers, sun worshippers, golfers, and gardeners (age range, 4-68 years).” Not exactly your average American or a scientific study. They tracked people’s diaries and followed them for one summer.
• Over the past 31 years, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined. 4
http://archderm.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/146/3/279 This study was done by a medical doctor acting alone. “As with all findings based on mathematical modeling, the precision of my estimate of NMSC prevalence is not known.” He also states “…most persons who develop NMSC will have multiple skin cancers during their lifetime.” Skin Cancer.org’s quote is based on his second to last line in his paper, “The prevalence of a history of skin cancer is far higher than that of any other cancer and exceeds that of all other cancers diagnosed since 1975,” and is sourced to another cancer study, but not specifically expanded upon in this paper. This doesn’t say more people have skin cancer than any other. It says a history is more prevalent than any other. A larger history can be attributed to the low mortality rate and high chance of reoccurance.
• Nearly 800,000 Americans are living with a history of melanoma and 13 million are living with a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, typically diagnosed as basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma. 5
Source links a CDC survey from 2007. The survey was tough to read, but I could not figure out what “history” meant. What qualified an individual as having a genetic history can be quite vague and wide ranging. Interesting to note, without basal and squamous numbers (non-melanoma), this link contains a CDC fact sheet, which estimates about 76,000 men and women will be diagnosed with skin cancer in 2011. This means that of the 2 million estimated diagnosed people, over 1.9 million are unreported basal/squamous. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/skin.html
• Actinic keratosis is the most common precancer; it affects more than 58 million Americans. 6 Approximately 65 percent of all squamous cell carcinomas arise in lesions that previously were diagnosed as actinic keratoses. In patients with a history of two or more skin cancers, 36 percent of basal cell carcinomas arise in lesions previously diagnosed as actinic keratoses. 7
“The estimated probability of a lesion progressing to squamous cell carcinoma ranges from 0.025 to 20% per lesion per year.22 Individuals with AKs may experience symptoms such as itching, burning, and tenderness around the lesion.
Other symptoms include pink, brown or red discoloration of the skin with a lesion diameter of less than one centimeter.
AKs may be caused by various biological and/or environmental factors. Biological factors that are known to influence AKs include age, gender, and skin color. Those at greatest risk of developing AKs are Caucasian males between the ages of 65 and 74. People who are immunocompromised or have mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene are also at an
elevated risk of developing AKs.23 Non-biological factors include occupational exposure to UV light, geographic place of birth, overall sun exposure, socioeconomic status, and diet….Since most AKs are found on parts of the body which typically receive the greatest exposure to sunlight (i.e. backs of hands, forearms, head and neck), UV radiation is thought to be the major environmental contributor to AK.” - copied word for word from source 6: http://www.lewin.com/content/publications/april2005skindisease.pdf
• Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common form of skin cancer; an estimated 2.8 million are diagnosed annually in the US.8 BCCs are rarely fatal, but can be highly disfiguring if allowed to grow.
Source 8 is an email from a guy named Howard Rodgers to the Skin Cancer Foundation. I could not locate the source. However, the 2.8 million Basal cell cases exceed the annual estimate of 2 million basal and squamous cell cases estimated by the first source. This is a 40% increase! In only one category!
• Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common form of skin cancer.9 An estimated 700,000 cases are diagnosed each year in the US,10 resulting in approximately 2,500 deaths.2
http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/sun_squamous.html - link to source 9…I couldn’t find this statement. I did find a statement similar to it, which says SCC is a “very common” type…not a critical discrepancy, but another good example of misquotation and distortion. Source 2, as you should recall, excluded both BCC and SCC figures from factual statements. I found numbers on melanoma deaths, but nothing on BCCs. If in the report, this claim would again be nothing more than an estimate.
• Between 40 and 50 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will have either skin cancer at least once.11
Good to note that this study admits that the question of hat use in regard to the use of protective clothing did not exclude baseball caps until 2005…the neck is one of the areas AKs were specifically dangerous. This website does say 40-50% of Americans who see 65 “have non-melanoma at least once,” however it doesn’t source this figure specifically. Changing the words from “non-melanoma,” which is highly treatable, to skin cancer is a nice, misleading spin.
• About 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers are associated with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.12
We’ve already established that these associations can easily be challenged with simple logic. I am not arguing that sunburns don’t create risk, but these studies are performed on human beings that may not understand questionnaires or provide less than honest feedback. If 90% is accurate, how many subjects within the 90% would be caused by malicious/ignorant/careless over-exposure?
• Treatment of nonmelanoma skin cancers increased by nearly 77 percent between 1992 and 2006.13
I don’t even need the source for this one. Most cases on non-melanoma skin cancer occur in people above the age of 50. An aging baby boom combined with increased life expectancy, heightened awareness, and more efficient medical care explain such an increase quite easily.
• MELANOMA
• One person dies of melanoma every hour (every 62 minutes).2
As a cause of death, this statistic is not very significant rate
• One in 55 people will be diagnosed with melanoma during their lifetime.14
Inflated by incidence being counted, not who is being diagnosed. None of these numbers account for reoccurring melanomas or cancerous lesions.
• Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old.15
Conveniently leaves out that the median age for diagnosis is 60 and death is 68. Melanoma is a visible cancer, caught early and easily, which may be why it is diagnosed quicker than cancers affecting internal organs.14
• The survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has penetrated the skin, is about 99 percent.16 The survival rate falls to 15 percent for those with advanced disease.2
From 2004-2008, the mortality rate for all races and both genders was 2.7 per 100,000.14 Death from melanoma is a serious issue, but rare. 0.1% of these deaths occurred in people under 20.14 In the US, you have a 0.0000027% chance of dying from melanoma before age 20, yet indoor tanning for kids under 18 is now illegal in some states.
• The vast majority of mutations found in melanoma are caused by ultraviolet radiation.12
A redundant point meant to criminalize UV exposure without explaining any other genetic disposition or the root cause of exposure. Was it a truck driver hanging his arm out of the window? Was it someone addicted to tanning in a bed or at the beach? Was it someone that had one bad sunburn on their neck but was genetically predisposed to develop a melanoma tumor?
• The incidence of many common cancers is falling, but the incidence of melanoma continues to rise at a rate faster than that of any of the seven most common cancers.17 Between 1992 and 2004, melanoma incidence increased 45 percent, or 3.1 percent annually.18
It’s weird that they keep using 2 different source for the same point. Anyway, Melanoma is listed as the 7th most common cancer by source 17 - http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2005/results_merged/topic_topfifteen.pdf - and scored a +1.6 annual percentage change from 2001-2005.17 This can be due to increased awareness. They have to increase fear and use a different source and a longer timeframe to raise the annual percentage change to 3.1. The SEER stats weren’t threatening enough, so they have to cherry pick from somewhere else for the desired effect. As mentioned above, it is rarely fatal and doesn’t even make the list in their mortality tables for any group except White men, and their annual percentage change for mortality in white men is actually decreasing!17 The mortality rankings of each cancer, overall, go like this: Lung, Colon, Breast, Pancreas, Prostate, Leukemia, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Liver, Ovary, Esophagus, Brain, Urinary, Kidney, Stomach, and Myeloma.17 Melanoma doesn’t even appear.
• An estimated 123,590 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed in the US in 2011 — 53,360 noninvasive (in situ) and 70,230 invasive, with nearly 8,790 resulting in death.19
I could not find this source, but this is less than 8% of the total cancer cases estimated by source 2, but the numbers do look nice and big.
• Melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases,20 but it causes more than 75 percent of skin cancer deaths.21
Another way of saying this is: Death from skin cancer is very rare. Melanoma, which causes 75% of these deaths, is also very rare. It is very difficult to say exactly what caused the melanoma to be fatal
• Survival with melanoma increased from 49 percent (1950 – 1954) to 92 percent (1996 – 2003).22
Good! But as you will read later, one of their points is that survivors are 9 times as likely to contract a new melanoma. A higher survival rate and a 900% greater risk factor may account for any claims of increasing rates they will make later!
• Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer for males and sixth most common for females.2
Skin is the human body’s largest organ. Odd to see men ranked higher than women when men utilize tanning, indoor and outdoor, much less. Is it possible that occupational hazard and dangerous exposure rates (shirtless with no SPF construction guy) and other factors (increased alcohol and smoking) contribute to skin cancer rates.
• Women aged 39 and under have a higher probability of developing melanoma than any other cancer except breast cancer.2
This is just a ridiculous statement. The source lists a woman under 39 as having a 0.49% chance of getting breast cancer (1 in 206) – by far the leader. Melanoma skin cancer is indeed second at 0.28% (1 in 360). Uterine cancers come in a close third at 0.22%. Prior to age 39, a woman has little to worry about regarding cancer. Over a lifetime, this chart shows men have a 1 in 6 chance of getting prostate cancer, 1 in 8 women will contract breast cancer. Only 1 in 37 WHITE men and 1 in 56 (all Races)women will ever have melanoma, which, as we pointed out, is rarely fatal. – American Cancer Society, Surveillance and Health Policy Research, 2010. Very interesting to note that the table only listed white men, as if people of other ethnic backgrounds aren’t at risk.
• About 65 percent of melanoma cases can be attributed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.23
It was not surprising that I could not locate this source, as it dates back to 1993, nearly 20 years old! I did however read an interesting article - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080722192326.htm - quite simply, some scientists believe that the benefits of sunlight far outweigh any possible correlation. “…common skin cancers (basal and squamous cell) develop in pale, sun exposed skin and are less frequent in people who avoid the sun and use protection. In contrast, melanoma is related to ethnicity rather than pigmentation and in 75% of cases occurs on relatively unexposed sites, especially on the feet of Africans.” Bob Marley had melanoma on his foot. I doubt he tanned much.
• One or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence more than double a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life.24
This source dates all the way back to 1983! It is called “Sun Exposure Habits in Patients with Cutaneous Melanoma” – non-malignant melanoma. I can’t imagine how this study can be scientific. “Ummm, like, maybe I was sunburned, but I don’t have any melanoma, so maybe not???”
• A person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns at any age.25
This one is hilarious. This source literally states, “Timing of excessive ultraviolet radiation and melanoma: epidemiology does not support the existence of a critical period of high susceptibility to solar ultraviolet radiation-induced melanoma. Brit J Dermatol March 2001.” We were just told that one sunburn in childhood doubles our chances. This source claims that there is no period of high susceptibility – sunburns at any age are equally damaging!
• Survivors of melanoma are about nine times as likely as the general population to develop a new melanoma.26
This only reinforces my belief that re-occurance inflates the risks presented by these studies. Let’s say someone has 10 instances of melanoma spots removed, once a year, over 10 years. This is counted as 10 diagnosed incidents but it has only affected one person, and it inflates the statistics because they do not account for repeat occurances when it benfits their desired outcome!
• One person dies of melanoma every hour (every 62 minutes).2
As a cause of death, this statistic is not very significant rate
• One in 55 people will be diagnosed with melanoma during their lifetime.14
Inflated by incidence being counted, not who is being diagnosed. None of these numbers account for reoccurring melanomas or cancerous lesions.
• Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old.15
Conveniently leaves out that the median age for diagnosis is 60 and death is 68. Melanoma is a visible cancer, caught early and easily, which may be why it is diagnosed quicker than cancers affecting internal organs.14
• The survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has penetrated the skin, is about 99 percent.16 The survival rate falls to 15 percent for those with advanced disease.2
From 2004-2008, the mortality rate for all races and both genders was 2.7 per 100,000.14 Death from melanoma is a serious issue, but rare. 0.1% of these deaths occurred in people under 20.14 In the US, you have a 0.0000027% chance of dying from melanoma before age 20, yet indoor tanning for kids under 18 is now illegal in some states.
• The vast majority of mutations found in melanoma are caused by ultraviolet radiation.12
A redundant point meant to criminalize UV exposure without explaining any other genetic disposition or the root cause of exposure. Was it a truck driver hanging his arm out of the window? Was it someone addicted to tanning in a bed or at the beach? Was it someone that had one bad sunburn on their neck but was genetically predisposed to develop a melanoma tumor?
• The incidence of many common cancers is falling, but the incidence of melanoma continues to rise at a rate faster than that of any of the seven most common cancers.17 Between 1992 and 2004, melanoma incidence increased 45 percent, or 3.1 percent annually.18
It’s weird that they keep using 2 different source for the same point. Anyway, Melanoma is listed as the 7th most common cancer by source 17 - http://seer.cancer.gov/csr/1975_2005/results_merged/topic_topfifteen.pdf - and scored a +1.6 annual percentage change from 2001-2005.17 This can be due to increased awareness. They have to increase fear and use a different source and a longer timeframe to raise the annual percentage change to 3.1. The SEER stats weren’t threatening enough, so they have to cherry pick from somewhere else for the desired effect. As mentioned above, it is rarely fatal and doesn’t even make the list in their mortality tables for any group except White men, and their annual percentage change for mortality in white men is actually decreasing!17 The mortality rankings of each cancer, overall, go like this: Lung, Colon, Breast, Pancreas, Prostate, Leukemia, Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Liver, Ovary, Esophagus, Brain, Urinary, Kidney, Stomach, and Myeloma.17 Melanoma doesn’t even appear.
• An estimated 123,590 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed in the US in 2011 — 53,360 noninvasive (in situ) and 70,230 invasive, with nearly 8,790 resulting in death.19
I could not find this source, but this is less than 8% of the total cancer cases estimated by source 2, but the numbers do look nice and big.
• Melanoma accounts for less than five percent of skin cancer cases,20 but it causes more than 75 percent of skin cancer deaths.21
Another way of saying this is: Death from skin cancer is very rare. Melanoma, which causes 75% of these deaths, is also very rare. It is very difficult to say exactly what caused the melanoma to be fatal
• Survival with melanoma increased from 49 percent (1950 – 1954) to 92 percent (1996 – 2003).22
Good! But as you will read later, one of their points is that survivors are 9 times as likely to contract a new melanoma. A higher survival rate and a 900% greater risk factor may account for any claims of increasing rates they will make later!
• Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer for males and sixth most common for females.2
Skin is the human body’s largest organ. Odd to see men ranked higher than women when men utilize tanning, indoor and outdoor, much less. Is it possible that occupational hazard and dangerous exposure rates (shirtless with no SPF construction guy) and other factors (increased alcohol and smoking) contribute to skin cancer rates.
• Women aged 39 and under have a higher probability of developing melanoma than any other cancer except breast cancer.2
This is just a ridiculous statement. The source lists a woman under 39 as having a 0.49% chance of getting breast cancer (1 in 206) – by far the leader. Melanoma skin cancer is indeed second at 0.28% (1 in 360). Uterine cancers come in a close third at 0.22%. Prior to age 39, a woman has little to worry about regarding cancer. Over a lifetime, this chart shows men have a 1 in 6 chance of getting prostate cancer, 1 in 8 women will contract breast cancer. Only 1 in 37 WHITE men and 1 in 56 (all Races)women will ever have melanoma, which, as we pointed out, is rarely fatal. – American Cancer Society, Surveillance and Health Policy Research, 2010. Very interesting to note that the table only listed white men, as if people of other ethnic backgrounds aren’t at risk.
• About 65 percent of melanoma cases can be attributed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun.23
It was not surprising that I could not locate this source, as it dates back to 1993, nearly 20 years old! I did however read an interesting article - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080722192326.htm - quite simply, some scientists believe that the benefits of sunlight far outweigh any possible correlation. “…common skin cancers (basal and squamous cell) develop in pale, sun exposed skin and are less frequent in people who avoid the sun and use protection. In contrast, melanoma is related to ethnicity rather than pigmentation and in 75% of cases occurs on relatively unexposed sites, especially on the feet of Africans.” Bob Marley had melanoma on his foot. I doubt he tanned much.
• One or more blistering sunburns in childhood or adolescence more than double a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life.24
This source dates all the way back to 1983! It is called “Sun Exposure Habits in Patients with Cutaneous Melanoma” – non-malignant melanoma. I can’t imagine how this study can be scientific. “Ummm, like, maybe I was sunburned, but I don’t have any melanoma, so maybe not???”
• A person’s risk for melanoma doubles if he or she has had more than five sunburns at any age.25
This one is hilarious. This source literally states, “Timing of excessive ultraviolet radiation and melanoma: epidemiology does not support the existence of a critical period of high susceptibility to solar ultraviolet radiation-induced melanoma. Brit J Dermatol March 2001.” We were just told that one sunburn in childhood doubles our chances. This source claims that there is no period of high susceptibility – sunburns at any age are equally damaging!
• Survivors of melanoma are about nine times as likely as the general population to develop a new melanoma.26
This only reinforces my belief that re-occurance inflates the risks presented by these studies. Let’s say someone has 10 instances of melanoma spots removed, once a year, over 10 years. This is counted as 10 diagnosed incidents but it has only affected one person, and it inflates the statistics because they do not account for repeat occurances when it benfits their desired outcome!
• MEN/WOMEN
• The majority of people diagnosed with melanoma are white men over age 50.14
This source also states that “Based on rates from 2006-2008, 1.97% of men and women born today will be diagnosed with melanoma of the skin at some time during their lifetime. This number can also be expressed as 1 in 51 men and women will be diagnosed with melanoma of the skin during their lifetime. These statistics are called the lifetime risk of developing cancer. Sometimes it is more useful to look at the probability of developing melanoma of the skin between two age groups. For example, 0.97% of men will develop melanoma of the skin between their 50th and 70th birthdays compared to 0.59% for women.”
• One in 39 Caucasian men and one in 58 Caucasian women will develop melanoma in their lifetimes.2,27
Again, these rates are inflated. Furthermore, I couldn’t specifically match these figures in source 27: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.20073/full - there was a table that had similar rates, but it did not exclude or delineate race. “Estimates of the expected numbers of new cancer cases and cancer deaths should be interpreted cautiously because these estimates are based on models and may vary considerably from year to year. Estimates are also affected by changes in method. The introduction of a new method for projecting incident cancer cases beginning with the 2007 estimates substantially affected the estimates for several cancers” – quoted from source 27.
• Approximately 39,000 new cases of melanoma occur in men each year in the US, and 29,000 in women.2
• Approximately 5,700 deaths from melanoma occur in men each year in the US, and 3,000 in women.2
• Five percent of all cancers in men are melanomas; four percent of all cancers in women are melanomas.2
Redundant points, see relating counterpoints already mentioned.
• Adults over age 40, especially men, have the highest annual exposure to UV.28
I won’t even look this up. The median age for diagnosis is 60, highest exposure occurs to people over 40, especially men. This does not describe your typical tanning client. I would feel safer if skincancer.org was handing out SPF 100 to bikers and construction crews rather than shutting down predominantly female owned small businesses.
• Melanoma is one of only three cancers with an increasing mortality rate for men, along with liver cancer and esophageal cancer.29,27
Source 27 lists the 2006 death rate for Esophagus Cancer at 7.852 per 100,000 – up from 7.16 in 1990. Liver Cancer went from 5.27 – 7.73 per 100,000. Melanoma is a distant third at 3.80 – 4.07. Essentially, a man’s chance, according to this, of dying from melanoma went from 0.00380% up to 0.00407%. As quoted above, source 27 admits these numbers are estimates and should be interpreted cautiously. A change of less than 2/1000 of a percent is literally meaningless when considering the possible margin of error.
• Caucasian men over age 65 have had an 8.8 percent annual increase in melanoma incidence since 2003, the highest annual increase of any gender or age group.30
In other words, incidence rate are rising, but it is mainly due to the older, aging population enjoying longer life and consuming more UV cumulatively speaking. As I quoted from their source above, once someone reaches 50, their risk of melanoma increases to 1%
• Between 1980 and 2004, the annual incidence of melanoma among young women increased by 50 percent, from 9.4 cases to 13.9 cases per 100,000 women.31
This source limited its scope to the development of cutaneous melanoma in Caucasions
• The number of women under age 40 diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma has more than doubled in the last 30 years; the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma among women under age 40 has increased almost 700 percent.32
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/294/6/681.full.pdf+html – This study focused on Olmsted County, MN. Not a very large population. The study period covered the 1976 – 2003 years and found 451 BCCs in 417 patients and 70 SCCs in 68 patients. Of these, only 341 were able to be reviewed and of those, only 328 of diagnoses were histologically confirmed. ”The most common location of BCCs was the head and neck region, with most tumors occurring on the central face in both men and women.” The author is also working on a 95% confidence interval. Wikipedia defines this as meaning: “For example, a confidence interval can be used to describe how reliable survey results are. In a poll of election voting-intentions, the result might be that 40% of respondents intend to vote for a certain party. A 90% confidence interval for the proportion in the whole population having the same intention on the survey date might be 38% to 42%. From the same data one may calculate a 95% confidence interval, which might in this case be 36% to 44%. A major factor determining the length of a confidence interval is the size of the sample used in the estimation procedure, for example the number of people taking part in a survey” As far as this 700 percent claim goes, I cannot find anything in the source to support it. As far as the rate doubling for women, if you compare the study’s 1976-1979 rate of 13.4 per 100,000 to the 200-2003 rate of 31.6, yes it has more than doubled. However, if you look at a more recent time period, 1995-1999 had a 41.6 rate per 100,000, the rate has actually decreased in recent years, in Olmsted county Minnesota. Each time period had less than 100 cases. This gross misrepresentation of numbers is consistent with this entire site’s claims.
• Until age 39, women are almost twice as likely to develop melanoma as men. Starting at age 40, melanoma incidence in men exceeds incidence in women, and this trend becomes more pronounced with each decade.29
I’m not even going to address these anymore.
•
• INDOOR TANNING
• Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a proven human carcinogen.33 Currently tanning beds are regulated by the FDA as Class I medical devices, the same designation given elastic bandages and tongue depressors.34
• The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an affiliate of the World Health Organization, includes ultraviolet (UV) tanning devices in its Group 1, a list of the most dangerous cancer-causing substances.35 Group 1 also includes agents such as plutonium, cigarettes, and solar UV radiation.36
Research into WHO definitions reveals that being in Group 1 only means that a substance is carcinogenic to humans. I believe that excessive exposure to UV radiation can cause cancer. Not much argument against such a simple statement.
Each Group is subdivided into categories of certainty. “Limited Evidence of Carcinogenicity: A positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent, mixture or exposure circumstance and cancer for which a causal interpretation is considered by the Working Group to be credible, but chance, bias or confounding could not be ruled out with reasonable confidence.” http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/risk_assessment.pdf Sunlamps are included in Group 1B (probable/limited) along with diesel exhaust. Cigarettes and Plutonium are in Group 1A, a much more dangerous WHO classification. I would also appeal to common sense when comparing sun lamp use to holding a block of plutonium.
• Frequent tanners using new high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure.37
And significantly less UVB.
• Ten minutes in a sunbed matches the cancer-causing effects of 10 minutes in the Mediterranean summer sun.38
This is also the same organization that promoted scare tactics for ‘epidemics’ such as SARS, Swine Flu, Bird Flu.
• Nearly 30 million people tan indoors in the U.S. every year39; 2.3 million of them are teens.40
• On an average day, more than one million Americans use tanning salons.41
• Seventy-one percent of tanning salon patrons are girls and women aged 16-29.42
Yet, the riskiest melanoma demographic is men over 50 that aren’t known as frequent tanners of any sort.
• Indoor ultraviolet (UV) tanners are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors.43
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/19/6/1557.long I could not find this 74% number, but this article was created by a U of MN associate professor with a doctorate in epidemiology. The author conducted a survey by questionnaire and telephone. “…the evidence that melanoma occurrence increases with frequent indoor tanning use is limited…” “Information on the risk of melanoma associated with specific devices is also lacking. Tanning devices emit both UVB and UVA.” UVB is considered the more dangerous form of radiation. “devices available prior to the 1980s emitted much higher levels of UVB compared with normal solar UV radiation.” “…in most studies, cases were diagnosed prior to 1990” So this person called up people diagnosed with some lesion or melanoma and delivered a one hour phone interview with the intent to have them point blame at indoor tanning use. The author repeatedly admits a lack of evidence and a low number of study participants. Searching her UMN work, she has an obvious anti-tanning bias.
• People who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.44
More twisted numbers. http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/News/study-links-tanning-bed-use-to-increased-risk-of-melanoma
• The indoor tanning industry has an annual estimated revenue of $5 billion.40
Cancer research burns hundreds of billions of dollars and drug companies have pressured the FDA to bury or prosecute many potentially successful treatments like anti-neoplastons.
• PEDIATRICS
• Melanoma accounts for up to three percent of all pediatric cancers.45
• Between 1973 and 2001, melanoma incidence in those under age 20 rose 2.9 percent.46
• Melanoma is seven times more common between the ages of 10 and 20 than it is between birth and 10 years.47
• Diagnoses — and treatment — are delayed in 40 percent of childhood melanoma cases.32
• Ninety percent of pediatric melanoma cases occur in girls aged 10-19.46
By far the worst lie spread here. The source http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/23/21/4735/T1.expansion.html does show that females aged 10-19 have an increased amount of the total diagnosed sites. The study shows 574 females accounted for the 956 instances of skin cancer in this age group, 60% of the total. There is nothing that comes close to showing 90% rate for females. It does say that caucasions account for 91.6% of the age group, but this includes both genders. I also believe it is irresponsible to include 18 and 19 year olds in a group which they term as Pediatric, which infers infanthood or childhood like ages. Looking at their charts and figures, this is where a large percentage of sites are diagnosed, so without these later teen years, there wouldn’t much of a study group to base any claims upon.
• The majority of people diagnosed with melanoma are white men over age 50.14
This source also states that “Based on rates from 2006-2008, 1.97% of men and women born today will be diagnosed with melanoma of the skin at some time during their lifetime. This number can also be expressed as 1 in 51 men and women will be diagnosed with melanoma of the skin during their lifetime. These statistics are called the lifetime risk of developing cancer. Sometimes it is more useful to look at the probability of developing melanoma of the skin between two age groups. For example, 0.97% of men will develop melanoma of the skin between their 50th and 70th birthdays compared to 0.59% for women.”
• One in 39 Caucasian men and one in 58 Caucasian women will develop melanoma in their lifetimes.2,27
Again, these rates are inflated. Furthermore, I couldn’t specifically match these figures in source 27: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3322/caac.20073/full - there was a table that had similar rates, but it did not exclude or delineate race. “Estimates of the expected numbers of new cancer cases and cancer deaths should be interpreted cautiously because these estimates are based on models and may vary considerably from year to year. Estimates are also affected by changes in method. The introduction of a new method for projecting incident cancer cases beginning with the 2007 estimates substantially affected the estimates for several cancers” – quoted from source 27.
• Approximately 39,000 new cases of melanoma occur in men each year in the US, and 29,000 in women.2
• Approximately 5,700 deaths from melanoma occur in men each year in the US, and 3,000 in women.2
• Five percent of all cancers in men are melanomas; four percent of all cancers in women are melanomas.2
Redundant points, see relating counterpoints already mentioned.
• Adults over age 40, especially men, have the highest annual exposure to UV.28
I won’t even look this up. The median age for diagnosis is 60, highest exposure occurs to people over 40, especially men. This does not describe your typical tanning client. I would feel safer if skincancer.org was handing out SPF 100 to bikers and construction crews rather than shutting down predominantly female owned small businesses.
• Melanoma is one of only three cancers with an increasing mortality rate for men, along with liver cancer and esophageal cancer.29,27
Source 27 lists the 2006 death rate for Esophagus Cancer at 7.852 per 100,000 – up from 7.16 in 1990. Liver Cancer went from 5.27 – 7.73 per 100,000. Melanoma is a distant third at 3.80 – 4.07. Essentially, a man’s chance, according to this, of dying from melanoma went from 0.00380% up to 0.00407%. As quoted above, source 27 admits these numbers are estimates and should be interpreted cautiously. A change of less than 2/1000 of a percent is literally meaningless when considering the possible margin of error.
• Caucasian men over age 65 have had an 8.8 percent annual increase in melanoma incidence since 2003, the highest annual increase of any gender or age group.30
In other words, incidence rate are rising, but it is mainly due to the older, aging population enjoying longer life and consuming more UV cumulatively speaking. As I quoted from their source above, once someone reaches 50, their risk of melanoma increases to 1%
• Between 1980 and 2004, the annual incidence of melanoma among young women increased by 50 percent, from 9.4 cases to 13.9 cases per 100,000 women.31
This source limited its scope to the development of cutaneous melanoma in Caucasions
• The number of women under age 40 diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma has more than doubled in the last 30 years; the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma among women under age 40 has increased almost 700 percent.32
http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/294/6/681.full.pdf+html – This study focused on Olmsted County, MN. Not a very large population. The study period covered the 1976 – 2003 years and found 451 BCCs in 417 patients and 70 SCCs in 68 patients. Of these, only 341 were able to be reviewed and of those, only 328 of diagnoses were histologically confirmed. ”The most common location of BCCs was the head and neck region, with most tumors occurring on the central face in both men and women.” The author is also working on a 95% confidence interval. Wikipedia defines this as meaning: “For example, a confidence interval can be used to describe how reliable survey results are. In a poll of election voting-intentions, the result might be that 40% of respondents intend to vote for a certain party. A 90% confidence interval for the proportion in the whole population having the same intention on the survey date might be 38% to 42%. From the same data one may calculate a 95% confidence interval, which might in this case be 36% to 44%. A major factor determining the length of a confidence interval is the size of the sample used in the estimation procedure, for example the number of people taking part in a survey” As far as this 700 percent claim goes, I cannot find anything in the source to support it. As far as the rate doubling for women, if you compare the study’s 1976-1979 rate of 13.4 per 100,000 to the 200-2003 rate of 31.6, yes it has more than doubled. However, if you look at a more recent time period, 1995-1999 had a 41.6 rate per 100,000, the rate has actually decreased in recent years, in Olmsted county Minnesota. Each time period had less than 100 cases. This gross misrepresentation of numbers is consistent with this entire site’s claims.
• Until age 39, women are almost twice as likely to develop melanoma as men. Starting at age 40, melanoma incidence in men exceeds incidence in women, and this trend becomes more pronounced with each decade.29
I’m not even going to address these anymore.
•
• INDOOR TANNING
• Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is a proven human carcinogen.33 Currently tanning beds are regulated by the FDA as Class I medical devices, the same designation given elastic bandages and tongue depressors.34
• The International Agency for Research on Cancer, an affiliate of the World Health Organization, includes ultraviolet (UV) tanning devices in its Group 1, a list of the most dangerous cancer-causing substances.35 Group 1 also includes agents such as plutonium, cigarettes, and solar UV radiation.36
Research into WHO definitions reveals that being in Group 1 only means that a substance is carcinogenic to humans. I believe that excessive exposure to UV radiation can cause cancer. Not much argument against such a simple statement.
Each Group is subdivided into categories of certainty. “Limited Evidence of Carcinogenicity: A positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent, mixture or exposure circumstance and cancer for which a causal interpretation is considered by the Working Group to be credible, but chance, bias or confounding could not be ruled out with reasonable confidence.” http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/risk_assessment.pdf Sunlamps are included in Group 1B (probable/limited) along with diesel exhaust. Cigarettes and Plutonium are in Group 1A, a much more dangerous WHO classification. I would also appeal to common sense when comparing sun lamp use to holding a block of plutonium.
• Frequent tanners using new high-pressure sunlamps may receive as much as 12 times the annual UVA dose compared to the dose they receive from sun exposure.37
And significantly less UVB.
• Ten minutes in a sunbed matches the cancer-causing effects of 10 minutes in the Mediterranean summer sun.38
This is also the same organization that promoted scare tactics for ‘epidemics’ such as SARS, Swine Flu, Bird Flu.
• Nearly 30 million people tan indoors in the U.S. every year39; 2.3 million of them are teens.40
• On an average day, more than one million Americans use tanning salons.41
• Seventy-one percent of tanning salon patrons are girls and women aged 16-29.42
Yet, the riskiest melanoma demographic is men over 50 that aren’t known as frequent tanners of any sort.
• Indoor ultraviolet (UV) tanners are 74 percent more likely to develop melanoma than those who have never tanned indoors.43
http://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/19/6/1557.long I could not find this 74% number, but this article was created by a U of MN associate professor with a doctorate in epidemiology. The author conducted a survey by questionnaire and telephone. “…the evidence that melanoma occurrence increases with frequent indoor tanning use is limited…” “Information on the risk of melanoma associated with specific devices is also lacking. Tanning devices emit both UVB and UVA.” UVB is considered the more dangerous form of radiation. “devices available prior to the 1980s emitted much higher levels of UVB compared with normal solar UV radiation.” “…in most studies, cases were diagnosed prior to 1990” So this person called up people diagnosed with some lesion or melanoma and delivered a one hour phone interview with the intent to have them point blame at indoor tanning use. The author repeatedly admits a lack of evidence and a low number of study participants. Searching her UMN work, she has an obvious anti-tanning bias.
• People who use tanning beds are 2.5 times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma and 1.5 times more likely to develop basal cell carcinoma.44
More twisted numbers. http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/News/study-links-tanning-bed-use-to-increased-risk-of-melanoma
• The indoor tanning industry has an annual estimated revenue of $5 billion.40
Cancer research burns hundreds of billions of dollars and drug companies have pressured the FDA to bury or prosecute many potentially successful treatments like anti-neoplastons.
• PEDIATRICS
• Melanoma accounts for up to three percent of all pediatric cancers.45
• Between 1973 and 2001, melanoma incidence in those under age 20 rose 2.9 percent.46
• Melanoma is seven times more common between the ages of 10 and 20 than it is between birth and 10 years.47
• Diagnoses — and treatment — are delayed in 40 percent of childhood melanoma cases.32
• Ninety percent of pediatric melanoma cases occur in girls aged 10-19.46
By far the worst lie spread here. The source http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/23/21/4735/T1.expansion.html does show that females aged 10-19 have an increased amount of the total diagnosed sites. The study shows 574 females accounted for the 956 instances of skin cancer in this age group, 60% of the total. There is nothing that comes close to showing 90% rate for females. It does say that caucasions account for 91.6% of the age group, but this includes both genders. I also believe it is irresponsible to include 18 and 19 year olds in a group which they term as Pediatric, which infers infanthood or childhood like ages. Looking at their charts and figures, this is where a large percentage of sites are diagnosed, so without these later teen years, there wouldn’t much of a study group to base any claims upon.
It is a shame that so many will buy into studies and factoids with little or no actual support other than some expert source, which turns out to be a well funded opinion. In the long run, this will only damage true cancer prevention and treatment. Raising awareness to real carcinogenic risks and promoting detection should be our main goals. Instead, they have chosen to accept money from corporate interests and finance studies aimed at harming a specific industry of business. Dr. Deann Lazovich of the UofMN has become a career attacker of the indoor tanning industry. Her studies of those diagnosed with melanoma spend hours on each case subject with phone calls and questionnaires designed to elicit her desired responses. Her study in the above source looked at 1100 Minnesotans with diagnosed melanoma between the ages of 25-59. Why were the majority of melanoma patients (those above 60) left out? It is because they had probably never used a tanning bed in their lifetime.
As a footnote, I would like to show you Snooki's healthy new lifestyle: http://www.sunlove.biz/ Not a bad deal. You can also find many of these "facts" scrolling across Sunlove's homepage. Not a bad deal at all, if you are profiting that is.
