The Irish Cancer Society and the Environmental Health Officers’ Association are calling for sunbeds to be banned, following a survey, which shows that 7% of Irish people are regular users.
3% of users say they expose themselves to sunbeds once a week, while 6% say they first used a sunbed when they were under 15 years of age.
15% of users claim the venues gave no guidelines for safe sunbed use.
According to the Irish Cancer Society, which wants to see them banned, sunbeds expose users to high levels of cancer-causing UV light which is the equivalent of five times the midday sun.
Prolonged use can cause premature ageing of the skin, loss of elasticity, sagging, wrinkling, freckling, yellowish discolouration and brown patches.
In the absence of a total ban, the ICS is calling for tighter legislation governing sunbed use and a voluntary code of practice to be adopted by providers.
There were 5,740 cases of skin cancer in Ireland in 2000 and this figure increased to 5,798 in 2001.
