Introducing a ban on commercial indoor tanning with an accompanying public health campaign would reduce melanoma and keratinocyte cancers and reduce health care costs, according to a study recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology .

Martin Eden, Ph.D., from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the health costs and consequences of implementing a policy-based intervention to ban commercial indoor tanning with an accompanying public information campaign across England. A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted, and the policy-based intervention was compared to the status quo of availability of commercial indoor tanning.

The researchers found that over the lifetime of all 618,873 18-year-olds living in England in 2019, a ban on commercial indoor tanning combined with a public health campaign would result in 1,206 avoided cases of melanoma, 207 fewer melanoma deaths, and 3,987 averted cases of keratinocyte cancers compared with the current situation. This would yield an additional 497 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) and health care cost savings of £697,858. The net monetary benefit of the intervention would be £10.6 million and the net health benefit would be 530 QALYs. The likelihood of this policy-based intervention being cost-effective is 99 percent at a cost-effectiveness threshold of £20,000.

"Introducing a ban on indoor tanning with a supporting public health campaign in England is cost-saving from a National Health Service perspective, resulting in health gain for a population of 18-year-olds," the authors write. "The implementation of a ban on the provision of indoor tanning should be given serious consideration."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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