CONCORD — Girls and young women in New Hampshire are diagnosed with the deadliest form of skin cancer at a significantly higher rate than their peers nationally, according to a state report released Thursday by health officials.
The state Department of Health and Human Services analyzed data from 1992 to 2006 to determine whether the state's dramatic increase in melanoma cases was due to better detection and reporting of the disease, or from an actual increase in cases.
A generation ago, New Hampshire's overall melanoma rate was well below the national average, said public health director Dr. Jose Montero. Today, it has caught up and, in the case of young women, surpassed the national figure.
Though melanoma usually strikes in people's 40s and 50s, doctors are seeing younger cases both in New Hampshire and nationally. The national average was 16.6 cases per 100,000 non-Hispanic white women, ages 15-39, from 2002-2006. New Hampshire's average was 23 cases per 100,000, or 38.5 percent higher.
"That's quite worrisome because we're talking about cancer in really young people, and a cancer that is 100 percent preventable," Montero said.
The report concludes that better detection does not by itself explain the higher rate, and the most likely cause is greater exposure to sunlight or increasing use of indoor tanning beds.
Still, officials don't know why New Hampshire's rate increased more than the national rate, Montero said.
"A missing piece of evidence is how young New Hampshire females compare to their national counterparts in trends of tanning bed use," the report states.
Though there is limited evidence that girls and women in New Hampshire are exposed to more sunlight, the state should do more to encourage sun safety practices, such as wearing sunblock and protective clothing outdoors, and to discourage use of tanning beds for all age groups, according to the report.
John Overstreet, a spokesman for the national Indoor Tanning Association, said the latter recommendation was based on "pure speculation."
"The science is all over the place," he said. "People want a very simple answer to what is a very complex question."
He didn't know whether young women in New Hampshire are more likely to use tanning beds, but said tanning salons tend to be concentrated in more densely populated states. He estimated that New Hampshire, population 1.3 million, has about 250 indoor tanning businesses, a relatively low number.
Amanda Pierce, 24, of Lempster, said she has sworn off tanning beds in the last few months after seeing news reports about links between artificial tanning and cancer. But she worries that her once- or twice-a-week habit put her at risk, especially since her mother and sister have had other forms of skin cancer.
"I started going when I was a sophomore in high school, before prom, before the summer and because everyone else went tanning and that was the cool thing to do," she said. "You looked pretty if you were tan. You don't really think about (the risks), especially if you're in high school."
Last summer, the World Health Organization listed tanning beds as confirmed "cancer-causers," particularly for teens and young adults.
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