Indoor Tanning Association blames Mayo cancer findings on your pale skin
|Someone in this picture didn't grow up in Minnesota.|
A letter released by the association claims that the Mayo study was flawed because the population studied in Olmsted County is much paler and more Scandinavian than the general population of the United States, meaning they were more vulnerable to skin cancer.
The Mayo study found an eightfold increase since 1970 in skin cancer rates for young women and suggests tanning beds are to blame.
"Young women are more likely than young men to participate in activities that increase risk for melanoma, including voluntary exposure to artificial sunlamps."
But the ITA says Mayo got it wrong, and that the real culprit is our ancestors and the pale skin they passed down to Minnesotans.