{"id":468686,"date":"2026-05-27T00:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468686\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T00:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T00:33:11","slug":"seventy-people-a-year-in-ireland-diagnosed-with-melanoma-cancer-due-to-sunbed-use-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/468686\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventy people a year in Ireland diagnosed with melanoma cancer due to sunbed use \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sunbeds are directly responsible for 5.4 per cent of all melanoma skin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cancer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cancer\/\">cancers<\/a> in Ireland, according to a coalition of health organisations calling for a total ban on their use. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Prof Anne-Marie Tobin, consultant dermatologist at Tallaght University Hospital, said some 70 people in the State are each year diagnosed with melanomas, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, due to sunbeds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cDepending on the staging of their diagnosis, these cancers could cost the taxpayer up to \u20ac9.7 million to treat,\u201d she said on behalf of the Coalition Against Sunbeds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The group said the risk of developing melanoma is increased by 75 per cent for those who use sunbeds before the age of 35. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Legislation prohibits sunbed use among under-18s, but the coalition said research indicated one in 20 children aged 10 to 17 had used the tanning machines. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">It said the number of people who will be diagnosed with melanoma is forecast to double by 2045.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI used sunbeds when I was younger and now I\u2019m paying the price because I\u2019m living with stage four melanoma, which is a terminal cancer,\u201d said Gill Costelloe, a patient advocate with Melanoma Support Ireland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/ireland\/2025\/05\/02\/sunbeds-melanoma-and-me-i-knew-the-risks-but-thought-it-could-never-happen\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sunbeds, melanoma and me: \u2018I knew the risks but thought it could never happen\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cMy melanoma was caught early when I had a mole surgically removed but, five years later, it came back without any warning and spread right through my body, nearly killing me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Costelloe said she is doing much better four years on from her diagnosis but will be receiving cancer treatment for the rest of her life. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cSome day that treatment may stop working and I have to live with that at the back of my mind every single day.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Earlier this year, the Department of Health\u2019s Sunbed Working Group assessed health evidence and recommended a blanket ban on commercial sunbeds in Ireland. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Members of the coalition include the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Skin Foundation, Melanoma Support Ireland, the Irish Association of Dermatologists, the Irish College of GPs, Breakthrough Cancer Research, the Marie Keating Foundation and others.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/health\/2025\/05\/26\/men-and-women-develop-skin-cancer-in-different-parts-of-the-body\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Men and women develop skin cancer in different parts of the bodyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunbeds are directly responsible for 5.4 per cent of all melanoma skin cancers in Ireland, according to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[258,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-468686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-cancer","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}