Is skin cancer hereditary?

Tanning Bed Skin Cancer?

• I've heard tanning beds cause skin cancer. Obviously, so does the sun. I see girls at my school getting tan.. like disgustingly tan. So I have a few questions. 1. I've noticed this.. let me know if you have or if it's just me noticeing. The girls who regularly tan at my school are dark VERY dark, but I've noticed they have a more red undertone to their tan then people who use spray tans, or just get tanned by being in the sun whenever their out (Like not actually laying out, but they'll go outside for awhile for like garage sales or something and end up with a tan) Something about the red undertone to their skin really makes them look disgusting to me. Does anyone else notice this? What do you think about it? 2.This is tricky to explain. melanoma is one of the worst cancers from what I've read. I've also read that tanning beds increase the risk from like 25-75 % (depends on what age you start and how regularly you do it) Okay so basically my question is.. people get skin cancer but now on top of those people girls are going tanning (because it's so easily convientiant compared to sitting in the sun for hours) So do you think the amount of people suffering from skin cancer will increase within the next years (by how much? and how many years down the rode?).. I haven't found anything that suggest how skin cancer from the sun and now tanning beds will increase the population of people living with skin cancer per year. So just give me your opinions:) I've read that tanning beds increase your chance of skin cancer by 75 percent if you do it very regulary while in your teens years... and since it is so popular amongst young teen girls.. that alone I think will raise the skin cancer population about 40-50 percent by 2025. All the other ladies have a bit of a lower risk then the teenagers because of the age they start at.. so I think for their age group it'll be raised 30-40 percent. So In total 70-90 percent. Just my thought.. Your thoughts? Oh, I'm not considering tanning by the way, I'm very pastel white. (For any Mac girls out their NC/W 15 is too dark for me.. that should give you an idea of how light I am) I actually LOVE being very white, people tell me I should tan or spray tan a lot, But I just don't feel the need to waste my money on the latest "fad". In other places the women are bleaching their skin to make it lighter, where they lie the lighter skin colors are favored, here the tanner girls are favored, in other countries that heavier people are favored. Theres really no specific beauty, society tells us what beauty is to our part of the world that's why beauty is different everywhere, just depends what your part of society says is beauty. I have no problem with my pale complextion :) I actually find it a bit funny how people care so much about what they look like now and not later, People tell me to tan.. Okay I'll be what society thinks is pretty at this time.. But I'll be very wrinkly when I get older. Of course everybody gets wrinkles, but excessive tanning causes more wrinkels earlier in life and causes leather looking skin as you age. I may be pale now, but when we're all 40 I'll be pale with normal skin while the other girls will be extra wrinkly and leather looking.

• Answer:

  No one knows what causes cancer, so nothing about it is obvious. Using tanning beds and sun exposure are only risk factors for skin cancer and they are not the only ones. I have lived in Southern California all of my life and do not notice people getting tan any more or less than they always have. No I do not expect to see an increase in the number of skin cancer cases.