LONDON, Jul 29, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- 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.
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