The Melanoma Foundation of New England’s Your Skin Is In campaign was first launched in high schools to curtail student use of indoor and outdoor tanning prior to prom. Participating students sign a No-Tanning Pledge and recruit their classmates to take part. The school with the most participation wins a cash prize to be used towards prom. The Foundation’s goal is to educate young people at risk for melanoma, in the hope that their healthy habits will extend beyond prom night. The program has been immensely successful, and has been widely promoted by Kelli Pedroia, a melanoma survivor and wife of Red Sox player Dustin Pedroia.
This year, the Foundation has extended their Your Skin Is In campaign to include colleges in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, with the goal of reducing student participation in indoor and outdoor tanning prior to spring break. The college contest has just opened, and we urge all interested college readers within these states to visit the site to participate!
Learn more about Your Skin Is In.
Why is it important to educate young people about tanning and melanoma?
- Young people are at greater risk. Preliminary use of a tanning bed before the age of 35 has been shown to increase the risk of melanoma by 75%.
- Tanning exposes you to known carcinogens. The World Health Organization recently released a statement declaring solar radiation, broad spectrum UV radiation, and exposure to sunlamps/sunbeds as known human carcinogens. This means that they cause cancer in humans, which places tanning in the same boat as smoking.
- Melanoma kills. It is the second most common cancer in young adults aged 15-29 years. According to the MFNE, it kills 1 person every 50 minutes. When detected late, the survival rate can be as low as 15%.
REFERENCES:
11th ROC: Ultraviolet Radiation Related Exposures. January 27th 2005. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. < http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/eleventh/profiles/s183uvrr.pdf>.
Cancer Epidemiology in Older Adolescents & Young Adults. SEER AYA Monograph Pages 53-63. 2007.
International Agency for Research on Cancer Working Group on artificial ultraviolet (UV) light and skin cancer. The associationof use of sunbeds with cutaneous malignant melanoma and other skin cancers: A systematic review. Int J Cancer 2007;120(11):2526.