UK kids getting extremely crisp-skinned and cancer-ridden

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I know they don’t get much sun in some parts of the UK, but really? A letter published this week in the British Medical Journal warns that a quarter of a million children in England risk developing skin cancer due to their ongoing use of tanning beds.

The letter’s authors, one from Cancer Research UK and the other with the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, cite two studies to back up their tanning bed worries. The first was a national poll of 3,100 kids, which found that 6 percent of those aged 11 to 17 had used a tanning bed. Of that 6 percent, around half used the beds at least once a month. The second study examined 6,200 tots and teens in six UK cities. In Liverpool and Sunderland, a stunning 51 percent and 48 percent of kids, respectively, were broiling under the burners – and over 40 percent of them were doing it on a weekly basis.

First of all: what? I’m pretty sure that the risks of tanning beds have been well-established and publicized by now. But a quick reminder that you might as well just ingest lethal quantities of arsenic and save yourself the time and money of a weekly tanning appointment. In fact, I’m not even sure why any rational adult would use a tanning bed, let alone drag their pre-teen along for a fake-n-bake session. Aha, but it seems that some don’t even have to drive to the local Desert Sun : a quarter of the kids using tanning beds enjoyed the luxury of at-home units. We’re in a global economic crisis, right? And you still have an at-home tanning bed?

To all you Liverpool girls and guys strolling around the sunless, rainy, cobblestone streets with skin the color of a tangerine: even if you won’t hop out of the tanning bed for legitimate health reasons, please, I beg you, at least consider the irreparable damage to your chances of ever getting laid after 40.