Last Updated: 2007-03-19 11:26:29 -0400 (Reuters Health)

The group reviewed all studies done up until March 2006 to investigate the relationship between sunbed use and skin cancer.

Men and women who ever used sunbeds were 15 percent more likely to develop melanoma, the researchers found, based on 19 studies they reviewed. A review of seven studies found that exposure to tanning beds before age 35 boosted melanoma risk by 75 percent.

While three studies of a less-deadly type of skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, also found increased risk with sunbed exposure, research did not support a link with basal cell carcinoma, another common type of skin cancer.

Given that sunbed use has become widespread only relatively recently, and that both melanoma and basal cell carcinoma have a long latency period, the current study may not have been able to detect all potential risk, the researchers note.

Nevertheless, they say, current evidence is strong enough to suggest that tanning bed use causes skin cancer, especially if exposure to sunbeds occurs before the age of 35.

"The strength of the existing evidence suggests that policy makers should strongly consider enacting measures such as restricting minors and discouraging young adults from using indoor tanning equipment, in order to protect the general population from additional risk for melanoma and squamous cell skin cancer," the IARC group concludes.

SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, March 1, 2007.