The main cause of skin cancer is UV radiation. The UV radiation basically damages your skin and this damage later develops in skin cancer. Skin cancer takes a lot of time to show up. Any sunburn that you have got today has the potential to turn into skin cancer, although, this will happen only in about 20 years. Therefore by doing any tanning now by exposing yourself to the sun, you are putting yourself at risk to skin cancer relating to tanning. Therefore one can safely establish that no amount of tanning is safe for your skin.

When your skin is exposed to the UV radiation, the melanin rises to the surface of the skin and protects the skin from further damage. This is what causes the skin to tan. Most people like this tan as they say that it gives them an athletic look. To top all this, all of the tanning salons that are there in U.S. claim that tanning is good for the skin. Some of them even go far enough to spread myths about skin can cancer that say that tanning is necessary for the skin, so that your body gets adequate amount of vitamin D. They say that UV radiation is the only source of vitamin D. This is wrong as vitamin D is present in many other foods like cereals and fish. It would serve to repeat that no kind of tanning is useful for the skin. The UV radiation damages the skin and results in the formation of malignant melanoma and damages the immune system and weakens the inner skin tissues and thus causes skin cancer relating to tanning.

When you skin is exposed long enough to sun light, the cell damage that happens is so severe that it crosses the stage of constructive cell cellular repair mechanisms. This facilitates the formation of tumour in your skin and results in skin cancer relating to tanning. Hence, tanning is in no way useful and should be avoided as much as possible. Tanning has other harmful effects too. UV radiation is the primary reason our skin wrinkles. It is said that if we do expose ourselves to sun at any point in our life, we can have youthful skin even at old age. This is just in theory as they say that since you are not exposed to UV radiation, the wrinkling of the skin will not happen. Exposure to UV radiation also results in damage to blood vessels. It can also cause allergic reactions in some cases. Eye damage is another harmful effect of UV radiation.

To protect yourself from the sun's UV radiation, you must apply sunscreen on your skin at all times. Although it is said that sunscreen does not aid in the complete prevention and control for skin cancer, it is useful to reduce the skin's exposure to sun's radiation and hence reduces the chances of skin cancer relating to tanning. Sunscreen of any SPF is useful and you must apply it to the maximum extent possible to protect yourself from UV radiation.