Don’t be tempted to tan—indoors or out. Wear the safest sunscreen you can find, along with SPF clothing, wide-brimmed hats, and sunglasses.

Bad news booth: Tanning beds are as unhealthy for you as cigarettes.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The leading research agency that provides cancer information to the World Health Organization has moved tanning beds into the highest cancer risk category, where it accompanies carcinogens like arsenic, asbestos, cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco. The special report appears in the current journal The Lancet Oncology. As with some other high-risk cancer-causers, tanning beds are an all-too-common health threat. “The use of UV [ultraviolet ray]-emitting tanning devices is widespread in many developed countries, especially among young women,” says report author Fatiha El Ghissassi, MD, of the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monograph Working Group.

THE DETAILS: The combined analysis of more than 20 epidemiological studies found that the risk of melanoma, a type of skin cancer, is increased by 75 percent when people use tanning devices before age 30. In addition, several other studies referenced by the group found that UV-emitting tanning beds and booths can lead to melanoma of the eye. IARC also reclassified UV radiation in the carcinogenic to humans category, meaning it’s not safe to lay out in the sun, either. Previously, UVB rays have been blamed for cancer, but the new report says UVA radiation has also been found to be a culprit in animal studies. These findings reinforce current recommendations by the World Health Organization to avoid sunlamps and tanning parlors, and to protect yourself from overexposure to the sun.