Fewer Teens Using Indoor Tanning Beds
By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - I have some positive health news as we head into the last week of 2014 and it has to do with teens and tanning.
For many years we have been seeing an increase in the use of tanning beds by teens and the fear is that this will have a dramatic effect on skin cancer. Health officials have been issuing warnings and it appears they may be working.
Between 2009 and 2013, rates of indoor tanning by high school students dropped by 20%, according to new data from the CDC. Researchers found that only about two out of ten female high school students engaged in indoor tanning in 2013 compared to twenty-five percent in 2009.
Back in 2009 there was an important step taken by the World Health Organization classifying indoor tanning devices as carcinogens.