ONE session on a sunbed could be enough to cause genetic damage to skin.
Elizabeth Whitmore and her colleagues at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in
Baltimore, Maryland, measured the levels of a protein made by a gene called p53
that makes cells self-destruct when their DNA is damaged, before and after
sunbed sessions. They also measured levels of a molecule called cyclobutane
pyrimidine dimer (CPD), made when DNA is damaged.
They found that one sunbed session raised levels of p53 protein and
CPD—the latter as much as did 10 sessions on the sunbed (Journal of the
American Academy…
