Young melanoma survivors speak out against indoor tanning

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Young melanoma survivors speak out against indoor tanning

By Liz Szabo, USA TODAY

Hessel loved a golden tan.

She began going to tanning salons before her freshman prom. She returned to the

tanning salon before dances, homecoming and the summer beach season.

" I knew about the risk but I was in denial, " Hessel says. " I thought, 'That's

not going to affect me.' " Then, when Hessel was 19, she learned that the mole

above her elbow was melanoma, a form of skin cancer that kills 8,700 Americans a

year.

Hessel, now 21, is one of a growing number of young women who have developed

melanoma after years at tanning salons.

Since 1992, rates of melanoma — once considered an old person's disease — have

risen 3% a year in white women ages 15 to 39, according to the American Cancer

Society.

Like Hessel, many young melanoma survivors are now speaking out about the risks.

" This is what my mission is now, " says Hessel, who says she feels lucky that her

tumor was caught early enough to cure through surgery.

Hessel has talked at her old high school and elementary school about the dangers

of tanning, spoken at a Relay for Life race, which raises money to fight cancer,

and shared her story on Facebook and online cancer forums.

Another young melanoma survivor, Shonda Schilling, wife of former baseball

player Curt Schilling, founded the Shade Foundation to teach children to protect

themselves from the sun. She had five surgeries for melanoma at age 33; she says

she also spent much of her youth tanning, both in the sun and in salons.

Although surgery likely cured her cancer, it also left her with 25 scars across

her back.

" I was so scared I was going to die, " she says. Now, at age 44, she says, " my

mission is to educate the kids. "

Thanks to tanning salons, more women in their 20s, 30s, and even their teens are

being diagnosed with skin cancer, including potentially deadly melanomas.

About 35% of 17-year-old girls use tanning machines, according to the Food and

Drug Administration.

The link between indoor tanning and cancer is clear, says Tim Turnham of the

Melanoma Research Foundation. People who have used tanning machines are 74% more

likely than others to develop melanoma, according to a 2010 study.

Science shows that the risk of melanoma is directly related to how often people

have tanned, says Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the American

Cancer Society.

" We really need to raise the alarm and address this more directly, " Lichtenfeld

says. " The connection is more solid than it has ever been before. "

Emerging research, from scientists at Harvard Medical School, Wake Forest

University and others, even suggests that the ultraviolet radiation used in

tanning beds can be addictive.

Bargielski says that's easy to believe.

Bargielski had never tried a tanning bed before taking a job at a salon when she

was 17. Soon, she was tanning five times a week.

" I often thought, while driving to the tanning salon, 'Why am I doing this? I

was just there yesterday,' " says Bargielski, now 31, of Erie, Pa.

Yet teenagers are especially resistant to hearing about the risks, Hessel says.

Although she was only 15 when she went to her first tanning salon, Hessel says

no one asked for her ID or permission from her parents. She paid for tanning

sessions with her own money, against her mother's objections.

" It's frustrating to look back and think, 'God, you're such an idiot. What were

you thinking?' " Hessel says. " It was the kid version of 'I'm invincible.' "

Hessel's mother, Sheri Kittell, says she has always routinely taken her children

for skin checks, because moles are common in their family. And it was Kittell

who sent her daughter to a dermatologist when her mole seemed suspicious. But

Kittell says she never realized how dangerous tanning beds really were.

When she heard about her daughter's diagnosis, Kittell says, she was

" devastated. " She lives in fear that her daughter will develop another tumor.

" If she had caught this a year later, this would be a different story, " says

Kittell, of , Wis.

Kittell says parents have a responsibility to keep their kids away from tanning

salons, but also to change the image that tans are beautiful.

A growing chorus of critics say children should not be allowed to use tanning

beds at all, even with a parent's consent. The American Medical Association,

American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Dermatology and World Health

Organization all have called on states to ban children under 18 from tanning

salons. New York state is considering such a ban, which would be the first in

the country.

The Indoor Tanning Association, an industry group, opposes that legislation.

" Taking away from teens the option to tan indoors will not stop teens from sun

tanning; it will only send them outdoors, " says executive director

Overstreet. " The decision whether or not a teenager suntans should be left to

his or her parents. "

Turnham says parents need to take the risks of tanning seriously.

" Do you talk to your children about smoking? " Turnham asks. " If you do, then you

should also have a conversation with them about UV (ultraviolet) radiation. "

Hessel says she feels lucky to be left with only a scar. The 4-inch, purplish,

diamond-shaped scar on her arm is " very noticeable, " Hessel says. " I know it's

not beautiful. But maybe people will say, 'I wonder where she got that from?'

and then I can tell them. "

Bargielski, who developed an early melanoma in 2009 at the age of 30, says it's

often tough to talk people out of tanning. " I try to share my story with people

who go tanning, " Bargielski says. " But they never want to hear it. "

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