Why do people say things like tanning salons, cigarettes, and alcohol should be banned?
Yes, I think you do make sense. The tanning bed scare report on CNN today was not thought out at all – placing tanning beds in the same category of carcinogen risk as tobacco smoking and arsenic. Some people are not thinking. You are thinking. If you are in the U.S., you know that we tried banning alcohol from 1919-1933 and it was a disaster. It led to a tremendous rise in organized crime. Many good citizens defied the law. The same would happen if tobacco was banned. Organized crime would love that. People would still get cigarettes – illegally. This tanning frenzy is nuts. The big news story today on CNN that tanning leads to a “75% increase in skin cancer” has to be taken in perspective. A 75% increase in skin cancer means less than twice the risk as a non-tanner. Some studies show that men who smoke cigarettes are 23 times more likely to get lung cancer. A < 2 times risk and a 23 times risk are rather different. Skin cancers are the most common cancer in the U.S. - there are over 1
