Sun Awareness Week (11-17 May 2026) is the British Association of Dermatologists’ (BAD) annual week-long campaign dedicated to raising awareness of the public health risk of sun exposure, from traditional tanning to sunbed use. The week also aims to teach the public about the importance of good sun protection habits, including ways you can check for signs of skin cancer.
Tanning and sunbeds
Sun damage is normally caused by ultraviolet rays from the sun, known as UV rays.
Two types of UV rays can penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere: UVA rays and UVB rays. UVB rays are largely responsible for that perennial summer problem, sunburn. However, both types of UV rays are responsible for potentially more serious issues—specifically skin ageing and skin cancer—the most dangerous version of which is melanoma.
Tanning beds, also known as sunbeds, are well-known for allowing tanning year-round, and are also a source of those UV rays, and can provide an even greater risk for melanoma than their natural counterpart. This is because tanning beds also produce UV rays, but at a much higher concentration than normal, making tanning beds faster, but capable of far more skin damage. That is not to say that traditional tanning is safe; however, sun exposure can be harmful in any amount, to any age group.
Sun protection, prevention campaigns, and public awareness of skin health risks are vital in preventing skin cancers and premature skin ageing.
Recent research from the BAD family of journals—the British Journal of Dermatology, our educational journal Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, and our open-access journal Skin Health and Disease—offers new insights into preventing skin damage and life-threatening skin cancers. Here are some highlights.
Tanning bed trends internationally
In 2009, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified indoor tanning as a source of Class I carcinogens—the highest level known. As a result, almost 25 countries globally have banned their use for minors—though anyone using a sun bed before their mid-thirties is at a higher risk of developing skin cancer later in life. A study published in BJD showed that Ireland is one of the countries that passed the Public Health (Sunbeds) Act in 2014. Since then, Ireland has seen a dramatic 40% reduction in registered tanning businesses. The key message of the study was that a targeted multi-pronged approach is needed to inform and stop the use of sun beds.
Although the ban on younger people who use sunbeds is helpful in pre-empting later skin cancers, tanning beds are still considered sources of carcinogens, with no safe level of exposure. In the United Kingdom, the regulation of sun beds is poor, as seen in this study, with many beds in sun tanning businesses recorded at settings far higher than the legal limit. This finding also correlates to higher melanoma rates in parts of northern England, with over 50 percent of businesses in some regions over-exposing customers.
Nail lamps and skin damage
Sun beds are not the only indoor source of UV rays. Getting one’s nails done can also pose a surprising risk of UV ray exposure through nail lamps, which help to rapidly dry gel lacquer using similar technology to full-body tanning beds. Individuals using both (ideally not at the same time) can be at risk of skin-damage conditions such as pseudoporphyria.
Sun exposure and athletes
Amongst those who spend much of their time in the sun, student athletes risk over-exposure to UV rays year-round, no matter where in the world they play. Novel research from Stanford has shown that when provided with a short video explaining the risks of sun-exposure, with the free provision of sun-protection in the areas that student athletes frequent, had a positive effect on attitudes towards sun protection usage.
Sun awareness in the medical field
Sun protection awareness campaigns can also benefit healthcare workers. An observational study from Ireland demonstrated that a digitally based sun-awareness campaign targeted at healthcare workers (857 workers completed the survey) in their places of employment raised not only raised the awareness of the importance (79%) of using sun-protection, but also increased the likelihood that healthcare workers would discuss sun protection universally.
Research has shown that clinicians emphasize the use of SPF-containing sunscreens and cosmetics, even though they also do not always meet the standard guidelines themselves. Clarification of sunscreen application guidelines, and further dissemination of the risks of the limits of cosmetics containing SPFs, may be in order—for physicians and the public alike.
Why public health outreach for sun exposure matters
Social media is emerging as an essential tool for raising awareness of the risks of sun exposure and preventing sunbed use among younger generations. Alternatively, social media has also raised interest in sun bed use—especially in the guise of ‘wellness’ and cosmetic applications. Research has shown that individuals who frequently use sun beds are more likely to sunburn as adults and participate in higher risk sun-exposure while using lower-UV ray blocking sun protection.
Acne can be the bane of any teenager—or adult. While some turn to tanning beds for temporary acne relief, adolescents can be unaware of the risks of frequent tanning bed use until the damage may be too late to prevent.
Finally, there is evidence that public health campaigns on skin cancer in both the United Kingdom and Australia have had the positive effect of steadying the rate of melanoma in young adults—especially when those campaigns are based on published research that confirmed the cancer-causing nature of ultraviolet radiation from all types of tanning.
Sun Awareness Week highlights the need for sun protection, education, and awareness about the risks that can contribute to skin cancers—not just from tanning beds. If you notice any changes to skin lesions or moles, then it is best to consult your doctor.
Contribute to the conversation this #SunAwarenessWeek and explore the latest research collection from each of the BAD journals, and check out our Patient Hub for more Sun Awareness resources.
Feature image by ClickerHappy via Pexels.
One detail that stayed with me was the 40% drop in registered tanning businesses in Ireland after the 2014 Public Health (Sunbeds) Act. That makes the policy question feel much less abstract. What I would be curious about is whether campaigns should lean even more on the cumulative side of exposure: in the same piece you connect sunbeds, nail lamps, and the Stanford athlete intervention, and that combination seems communicatively powerful because people rarely experience UV risk as one behaviour at a time. Framing it as an accumulated exposure budget rather than a single beach-day decision might help move the issue from aesthetics to long-term health.